I tried something different today. Rather than post a picture that I took, I did an edit for another blog called Show Your Skills. This is Amanda Padgitt's picture and blog. She suggested a black and white conversion of her photo.

I did a gradient layer and lightened a bit with the gradient slider. I also lowered the opacity to about 65% because the sweater she is wearing is purple. By lowering the opacity a bit, it took her sweater from a dark gray to a purplish gray and I thought it looked really nice like this.

Tell me what you think. This is my first try at Show your Skills. I hope it turned out ok!