This is the first of two portraits of Harmony, both of which were shot today. This one was taken in our garden this morning, while the second was taken in the park in Veliko Tarnovo at lunchtime. Of the two, I think I prefer this one, but there's something about the next one that I really like too.

In terms of the post-processing: this is a partial black and white, insofar as I used a Channel Mixer adjustment layer (biased towards the red channel) to convert the image to black and white, after which I lowered the opacity of the layer to allow some of the colour to bleed back into the image. In other words, it's very much like the first image I discuss in my Black and White: part one tutorial; i.e. the image is a lot lighter than the original – because of the way in which the black and white conversion was carried out – but because the opacity of that layer was lowered it's a colour rather than black and white image. To give you an idea of what I mean, take a look at the original:

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As you can see, it's quite a light shot anyway, but nowhere near as high-key as the final image.

As always, let me know what you think.

Oh, and thanks for all the birthday wishes on Facebook, they're very much appreciated :)