Ok, I seriously didn't want to post a black and white photo because it is just too easy. But this one really struck me and I wanted to share it. This is the same boy from two days ago and I was finishing up their family photos. I generally like to process and gussy up my favy's first to send out in an email. I don't know if it is the angle or because I processed it B&W. It really has a good feel to it. When I process a photo to B&W I use photoshop CS3's IMAGE / ADJUSTMENTS / BLACK AND WHITE. You can adjust the colors to your liking. I found that the image usually looks a little dull after B&W'ing it. So I then go to IMAGE / ADJUSTMENTS / BRIGHTNESS-CONTRAST, and give the image a hair more brightness and some decent contrast. It is usually about 5-10% on the brightness and about 20-30% on the contrast, depending on your desired effect. The same settings on the camera as the one I posted 2 days ago as well as the additional photoshopping. You need to click on the image to see it larger to get the full effect. I hope it strikes you like it did me.

I did family photos today. It was a fairly nice day so I took them outside. Living in SW PA, if it is not raining, you have to consider it to be a nice day. My hope was that the sky would be blue so there would be a nice contrast of the blue sky and the green leaves. It ended up being more overcast than I thought so I tried to use the foliage as much as possible. The photo today isn't of the typical structered "this is where you stand" family photos, but rather of the last shot I grabbed before everyone left. It was a family of about 20 and as it was over, everyone was kind of just socializing when I saw the youngest boy off by himself. I pointed the camera at him and he smiled. I thought "cool, he's gonna let me get a few shots". I directed him over to a tree and asked him to lean against it. I shot a few off and this was the result. I had to touch up the face a bit, under the eyes, etc, with the clone stamp in photoshop. I used the dodge tool on his eyes to make them stand out a bit more. Finally, I used the Noise Ninja plugin to soften up the photo a bit. Camera: Nikon D90 - 1/160s - 200mm - f6.3 - ISO 200 - Vivid Color - Used DGK white balance card to set white balance before the shoot began. About 10am.