I love the contrast of the white dress and the dark black mud.
The patterns in the mud are quite striking as well.

what an awesome shot......the contrast between the child and the sand is dramatically striking!

Not that this is a huge problem but if you edited out the 2 "distracting" white pieces to the right of the picture, i think it would look a lot more cleaner. It wouldn't be very hard to do, but very cute photo

Dave, I'm not clear on what you mean by using the channel mixer to "extract the red channel." Everytime I open the Channel Mixer and try that, I get a green image. Here are the steps I'm trying to do: Image>Adjustments>Channel Mixer. Then I'm presented with three sliders (Red, Green, Blue) and a pulldown bar (Red, Green, Blue), and finally a click button for Monochrome and a slider for Constant.

But any combination of those sliders doesn't result in anything usable. What am I missing?

Frankly, Fred Miranda's BW Workflow Pro is my favorite (and admittedly easier to use) plugin for black & white conversions.

I agree--nice eyes. I like the slightly macabre feeling of this one, too.

awesome portrait - your daughter looks tiny all the way down there!

Alec, I think you need to select the monochrome checkbox, then play around with the sliders roughly keeping the sum total somewhere near 100%.

Very nice, like the contrast here. The two small white things to the right are a bit distracting.

wow. amaizing contrast between the child and the huge field of..mud.
great work, as always.

Definitely she really looks like a doll. ( a spoky one), We don't see her that much, so now I wonder how she would look like in some other position or prespective. Love the petterns in the mud. .

something about the background makes her look tiny to me! and i'm right there with you seeing the Hammer film comparison -- the overall effect is spooky. i'm going to have to try using the channel mixer before converting to b/w. i really like your results here!

I really like your use of space... Personally I've always liked this type of shot of children... I absolutely love the way her eyes turned out - so striking

love the contrast... this shot is wonderful!

Nice perspective! I can't wait to get home for the summer and use the beach to capture shots similar to this.

I like the perspective of this shot and how you made her eyes stand out. I love the fact that every time you learn something new you share it with us! Thank you!!

VPra: I did think about cloning out the white pieces – one is a broken shell and the other is a stone – but, given that the image ended up being a bit "edgier" than I intended I decided that I quite liked their presence.

Alec: open the channel mixer, select the channel you want to extract from the "Output Channel:" drop-down, then click the "Monochrome" button (bottom left). This will convert the image to black and white based on the channel you select.

Adriana: I'll try and take some more shots of her over the next few weeks.

Good choice with the channel mixer, her eyes hold your gaze.

the patterned sand creates a great background. nice tone and angle too.

I dunno about Hammer Horror. Does look a bit Victorian ghost though, I suppose. Nice technique with the B&W.

And I hope her toes didn't get too cold.

Very nice, though, it does look kinda creepy. Maybe its just the prospective? She looks really short. I do like how the eyes are nice and clear, and how the sand gives more texture, its nice. :)

oh gosh....what a pic! LIke to think as if the mud was chocolate .Love the contrast of colour, texture and ....do your wife and you are planning to keep the formula of how to make such gorgeous children a family secret? Guess so!
:) Superb Dave. Congratulations...

gorgeous!

Wow - the texture is incredible!

Yeah, but damn that's a nice ghost!
Wonderfull picture.. the best one in a while.. really like it...
nice light and great texture and a great different portrait..
.. she's still adorable though!

superb!

Something that makes her pretty spooky or 'dollish' are these.. bracelets (?) on her wrist. I hope they're bracelets :)
Well done.

nogger: it was cold and rainy again today, but yesterday, when this was taken, it was much warmer.

Maxine: luck ;-)

bmoll: lol, those are her wrists. She's still quite a baby in a lot of respects, including her chubby wrists.

The mysteries of Dave, So that is how you extract the desired channel. I also use the channel mixer that is to the right on CS, this allows you to put two of the three colours in your little bin, this effectively, chooses the colour channel you wish to manipulate.

I am not sure about this image. The sand is great but your daughter looks a little bit lost in it, dwarfed by the scene. The eye detail may have more impact were she a little closer to the camera?

I like it but also perhaprs a more high contrast (darker) dress would have been better in black and white. Hmmmm, still does have something as most of your images do...

what is your method of colorizing your images to get that sepia tone?

stephen: I normally use the Curves tool. It's easier to play around with than describe but basically you need to adjust the midtones for three colour channels: bump the green channel up a bit, bump the red channel up by about twice that amount, and then take the blue channel down about as much as you put the red channel up. Does that make sense?

A variation on Dave's channel mixer method is to click on the Channels palette (it looks like the Layers palette). You can then click on Red, Green or Blue to see what each channel looks like in B&W. Once you've selected the one you want, change the mode to grayscale. It's just a variation that may work for you.

Excellent. Glad I added you to my favorites :)

Great capture Dave, the processing is outstanding imho.

This is Great Photograph..
Love how the dark texture contrasts with the girl..

Paul

Excellent angle.

For me, the composition leads you first to her eyes and down to her toes in the mushy sand. I really like when a shot directs you and kind of tells you how you're supposed to look at it.

Much as I'd like to credit the photographer, the gaze of that girl makes the photo. Okay, the photo's not half bad either.... Hehehe.

Love the composition and the repetitive pattern. However, it is the eyes that I keep coming back to. Just stunning.

Thanks for explaining that, Dave. I got it.

Fred: That's my preferred method when doing it by hand. For now, though, I'll use the Miranda plugin. :)

Hi David. Nice shot. Wonderful contrast. I just wanted to ask you if you could outline in detail how you use the channel mixer when you're converting colour images to b/w?

nice sephia.... bravo~

I really like this photo, and I think your wife nailed the description. The texture in the mud is just spectacular. I'm going to have to try what you're describing up above with some of my shots.

this one is great
very emotive
wondeful face
wonderful composition
wonderful tone

Excellent Shot! Very Cute!!
"I convert them to black and white using the channel mixer to extract the red channel..."
Does this mean that the grayscale image was taken just from the red channel ALONE? My trials had always resulted in making the shot bad. I quite dont understand this right?

-TJ

This is a brill picture Dave. Contrast at work here.

I am kicking myself now but the other day I stumbled across a female photographer who shoots children in a way that can be described as alien

I can't remember her name at the moment but when I do I think you should have a look.

John

The line formations on the ground look great. Great capture.

Really lovely. For me the stone and shell are important to the overall contrast between 'other wordly' and 'down to earth', and add to the composition and character, and make it less bland than it might otherwise have been. Still it would have been lovely though.

Yup, I'm with L on this one! ROFL
Interesting though :)

pretty scary! I see what you mean now!

excellent, david. i love it.

this looks so great, the is my favorite photo for now. but i wont use it as a wallpaper, because the girl scares me a little. i dont know, she is so cute, bt she looks like somebody from a scary movie. this shouldnt be an insult.

I'm finding myself really staring and taking this picture in. There's something very captivating about it. I don't see anything haunting about it. I think it's a beautiful photo which captures the innocence and wonder of your daughter. As the father of a 15-month old girl, I can really appreciate this type of photo.

I really like how your all of your monochromes turn out. I'm trying to find a nice way to get the effect without a channel mixer (using PS Elements 3).

Wow! Cooool contrast.

"What you lookin' at?"

That's a great portrait. The composition, the expression, one of the best I've seen. Well done!

~she's beautiful~

Thanks everyone, and now I'm really glad that I put this one up.

Eerie and beautiful... great texture and composition - got to love the channel mixer.... I really think it would be super helpful if you always mentioned however briefly what goes into the processing of your spectuclar images. I bought both the books you recommeded and continually practice but nothing ever comes close to your amazing shots. So please share! :)

I see the scary movie thing but I'm afraid to say this...........
The first thing I saw was - she looks just like her dad!
The more I look the more I see it.

It's beautifully scary to post something like that of your daughter.

*clap clap clap* You're the man. I love the way you daughter stands out from the pattern of mud.

I do like this picture--before I opened the comments window, I really thought it looked amazing (the comments settled my thoughts down). Those blue eyes work well to focus the picture. I wonder what a picture would look like with a tight composition on her head, filling the right/middle side of the shot while having a muddy background.

very very beautiful picture! i love it!

The mud/sand resembles plasticine/clay, but she seems/is so human (ie. see the mud on the toes). I think this contrast is more revealing than any contrast of colors - this is what makes it so much more -- ie. mult-levelled characteristics, with blending that can't be manufactured. Very nice.

Great. Really.

Great picture, Great background.

Your little girl has CAPTIVATING eyes.

She is an old soul most definitely :) and I bet she is very intelligent!