You already know that life is full of compromises–like the way you have to eat your broccoli before you get desert, or promise to walk the dog in order to get your spouse to agree to let you, you know, get a dog. So too with photography: A “good exposure” sometimes means that while most of the photo looks fine, there are some deep shadows lacking in detail, like in my photo of a Coast Guard sailor protecting the Staten Island Ferry enroute to Manhattan. Last week I talked about a few techniques for brightening shadows to reveal hidden details This week, let’s wrap it up with a couple more ways to selectively improve the quality of your photographs.

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If you’re sick of sloppily made panoramic images, you might want to look at this cool new attachment for your iPhone 4. The GoPano micro, made by EyeSee360, attaches straight to your iPhone 4 over the existing lens; all you have to do is hit the record button in the app.

Utilizing a specially curved mirror, the 360-degree lens collects light from all directions and sends it into your iPhone 4′s lens. From there you can preview the 360-degree video as it records. You can then return to the video and view it from any perspective and at any angle and at any time.

The GoPano micro is a modified version of the GoPano Plus, which you can attach to a multitude of different cameras for both pictures and videos. With the GoPano Plus. you had to take your videos and photos off the camera and then edit them on the computer, but on the iPhone 4 the GoPano app does everything for you.

The GoPan micro also started on Kickstarter and has raised $169,209–substantially more than the initial $20,000 fundraising goal. It’s not available yet, but the creators hope to make it available to you soon. Make sure to check out the full specs at the GoPano store and to join the email list to get notified when it becomes available!

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There are a lot of things you can do to your photos with a single click in your photo editing program. Last week, for example, I showed you how you can use the Color Replacement tool in Adobe Photoshop Elements to change specific colors in an image. And in the past, I’ve explained how easy it is to convert any photo to a stylish black-and-white composition by setting the saturation to zero in any image editor.

In Adobe Photoshop Elements, you can use the Remove Color command (found in the Enhance, Adjust Color, Remove Color menu) to convert a photo to black-and-white in one step. This week, let’s combine that with a little Layers action to give you more control over what your black-and-white photo looks like.

Start With Duplication

As usual, I’ll show you how to do this in Photoshop Elements–though the steps are basically the same in any photo editor that supports layers.

Get started by opening a photo that you would like to turn into a black and white. But don’t go straight to the Remove Color command. Instead, duplicate the photo in a new layer first. To do that, choose Layer, Duplicate Layer from the menu, and then click OK. You should see two copies of the photo in the Layers Palette on the right side of the screen.

Turn It Into a Black and White

Now we’re ready for the black-and-white-ification of the photo. Make sure that the top layer is selected in the Layer Palette, then choose Enhance, Adjust Color, Remove Color. The photo should turn black and white–but if you glance over at the Layer Palette, you will notice that the bottom layer is still in color.

Tweaking the Black-and-White Photo

Here’s where we get tricky. We’re going to fine-tune the black-and-white version of the photo by editing the underlying color layer. Go back to the Layer Palette and change the blend mode from Normal to Hue. This will let you edit the black-and-white top layer by fiddling with aspects of the underlying color photo, such as the Hue and Saturation. The hue of the color layer will directly inform the final tone of the black-and-white photo.

To try this out, click on the bottom layer–the one that is still in color–and choose Enhance, Adjust Color, Adjust Hue/Saturation. Now you can change the hue and saturation of your bottom layer, and watch the effect on the black-and-white layer. That’s not all. With the bottom layer still selected, choose Enhance, Adjust Lighting, Brightness/Contrast. Notice that as you move the brightness and contrast sliders, you can see the effect on the final black-and-white image in real time.

When you are satisfied with your photo, you can combine the layers (right-click on a layer in the Layer Palette and choose Flatten Layers) and save the image as a JPEG. Here you can see how this photo evolved from color to black-and-white to an enhanced black-and-white using layer adjustments.

Original color photo.

Simple black-and-white image.

Black-and-white image enhanced with layers.