I fell in love with a black and white image from a recent newborn session and thought I’d share a step-by-step edit just for fun! I use Photoshop CS6 Extended and Lightroom4, and I have an amazing action set from Paint the Moon called the Essence and the Artisan. The Essence is for more practical editing and the Artisan is great for more artistic editing, like adding splashes of color, matte, and haze.

The color version is here:Step one: go to the Layer menu and select “New Adjustment Layer” > Black & White. I like working in layers because if I absolutely hate the effect I can delete the whole layer and start over! I liked the look of the “Default” black and white, so that’s what I selected to get this image:I then went to my Actions menu and selected “Rich Deep Matte” from “Overlay Finishes” under PTM the Artisan. I lowered the opacity of the new layer to 48% to get this result:I actually added the last adjustment, a light vignette (darkened corners) in Lightroom, to get the finished product!