I downloaded an advance copy of a fantastic ebook the other day – The Magic of Black & White – Part II, Craft, by Andrew S. Gibson, which launches officially tomorrow.  In it, he gives step by step direction for converting color images to black and white and then adding split toning to further enhance the image.  His directions are for both Photoshop CS and Photoshop Elements.  I tried it in Lightroom and it works as well, but some of the techniques are specific to Photoshop (or probably something else similar).  For the two images here, I converted to black and white in Lightroom, tried the split toning, but wasn’t thrilled with the results, so exported to Photoshop and tried it again – much happier.

The auther of the ebook has some beautiful images, which he uses to illustrate the different examples he provides.  There are 27 pages of discussion, instruction and example and it is well worth the price of $5 for this download.  The ebook launches tomorrow, and if you come back tomorrow, I might be able to give you a discount code to make the purchase even sweeter. (Yes, I’m an affiliate.)  I have to say that I even learned a few new tricks, which I will definitely be putting to use. This ebook, as well as some other really fantastic ebooks are available at David duChemin’s Craft and Vision.

[Update!]   For the first six days only, if you use the promotional code MAGIC4 when you checkout, you can have The Magic of Black & White – Part Two for only $4 OR use the code MAGIC20 to get 20% off when you buy 5 or more books from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes expire at 11:59pm PST JUNE 1, 2010. 

I had a portrait session last night with a fun family, whose kids are always on the go.  I set the camera to high speed continuous shooting and quickly filled up my memory cards!  The first photo just makes me giggle – the faces this little guy comes up with are to die for.  And his sister loves to pose for the camera…she makes a great model. =)