A before and after on Instagram

Before

After

This is a picture taken of my daughter Olivia at Hampstead Heath (London). I noticed the beautiful magnolias and wanted to capture them in all their glory now that spring has finally arrived!

It's interesting to see a picture before editing and that's why I wanted to share this one with you. When I observed the image I felt that the centre flower (magnolia) needed to be the main point of focus; I also felt that Olivia's little hand was an important part of the story.

I first opened the raw file in Lightroom and converted it to black and white using a Mastin Labs preset from the Illford Original Pack (Ilford PanF) then I removed the grain. After a few more adjustments I opened the file in Photoshop for some finishing touches. You can see the full process on my speed editing video.

I also have a colour version from the same series on my website.