Olivia Parker 
Learning how to crop photos for Instagram without losing quality comes down to three moves: crop from the largest original you have, never zoom past 100 percent, and export an sRGB JPEG at the exact pixel size for the ratio you are posting. Ten minutes in any editor, and the post arrives nearly as sharp … Read more
To shoot in square format, set your camera or phone to a 1:1 aspect ratio, then compose for a frame that is exactly as wide as it is tall. On most phones that is one tap on the ratio button above the shutter; on a camera it is an image area or aspect ratio setting … Read more
A Black and White adjustment layer sits above your photo and maps every colour in the layers beneath it to a grey tone, with a separate slider for reds, yellows, greens, cyans, blues and magentas. The whole conversion happens on its own layer, so you can dial it in, mask parts of it, and switch … Read more
To start working out how to shoot black and white photos with a digital camera, you have two options: turn on the camera’s built-in monochrome mode, or shoot color RAW files and convert them in editing software. The second option keeps every bit of color data, so you can change your mind later, and that … Read more
To add contrast to black and white photos, you widen the gap between the darkest and lightest tones: pull the tone curve into a gentle S-shape, then fix the few areas that still sit in gray with masked dodge and burn. On a properly converted file that takes about five minutes per image, and the … Read more
To edit black and white photos in Lightroom, open the image in the Develop module, set Treatment to Black & White in the Basic panel (or press V), then use the B&W panel sliders to decide how bright each colour becomes. Shape the result with the tone curve, add local adjustments and grain, and export. … Read more
The fastest way to convert a photo to black and white in Photoshop is to add a Black & White adjustment layer from Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Black & White. Photoshop converts the image instantly, the color data stays in the file, and you can dial in six sliders until the tones look … Read more
Black and white photography for beginners is the easiest place to start learning photography, because taking the colour away forces you to look at light, shadow, shape and texture instead of at whether a wall is red or green. You need nothing more than a camera, a subject and ten minutes outside. This guide walks … Read more