B & W conversions

Some images, very few for me, seem to need to be converted from colour to B & W. I am just setting out to find out the best way to do this and for the shot below used the B & W adjustment offered in CS3 I adjusted the red and the magenta a bit.

Help and tips welcome and I have included the original so you can see what I was trying to do a bit clearer. Many thanks.



[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/Thordell/YOP/Alanmusic.jpg[/IMG]

and the original straight from the camera

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/Thordell/YOP/Alancolour.jpg[/IMG]

I think this portrait works better in B/W, nicely done Jackie.

I too prefer the portrait in black and white. Nice one!

I'd darken it a little. Presently it appears almost over-exposed on my monitor. And I'd play with contrast and levels. Good raw material for an excellent portrait.

G

Hi thordell when i convert to mono i tend to like images with lots of contrast and blacks.Maybe it wouldn't suit this image but maybe in shots of buildings etc.I usually adjust the contrast slider and the saturation one to suit.It's still a nice image though

In my opinion LR as well as CS3 provide the best tool for creating monochrome images. This, in combination with split-toning (LR) you have all the control you ever need. And your examples shown above strengthen my thought on this subject. Well done !!

Martin.

Can't say I can fault the black and white conversion. There is far more detail in the eyes, eyebrows and fingers. The colour, in the original draws to to it, instead of the person being photo'ed. Can't say I know too much about black and white. Need to heed the experts on this forum.

I also prefer the mono version, but I agree with George it could do with a little more contrast. I'm glad you got rid of that distracting highlight in the black and white version Jackie.
I get better mono results shooting in RAW rather than JPEG.
Your husband looks like he's listening to Beethoven rather and heavy metal.
david