Today’s theme for the 2009 Challenge is Black & White, Portrait. It’s quite easy. Shoot a portrait, but make sure you’re shooting for black and white. When shooting for black and white, in time, you’ll realize that you can’t shoot like you would for a traditional color photograph. Because the end result will be monochrome, you’ll have to be aware of colors that won’t contrast when converted, etc. Pay attention! You shouldn’t just be shooting a portrait, and then converting it to black and white, without taking these things into consideration. Consider converting with Photoshop’s channel mixer, or even better, a special plugin. I recently acquired Nik Software’s Silver Efex Pro, and man does it rock! Give a tool like that a try, and you’ll be shooting black and white, even when you didn’t plan on it.
Once you’re ready to submit your work to Flickr, you’ve got to do two important things. First, make sure you tag your photos correctly; “2009challenge″. Also, if you haven’t already, join the PhotoChallenge group on Flickr. Then, submit each day’s photo to the group’s pool.