P.Beau Loc: EG.RI

Hello,
I just joined on and barely looked at the details of this site. Some very interesting and beautiful pics for sure and I enjoy the feedback w/o being offensive on many.
My history is taking photos for a v.long time, old film Canon F1 user and taught photo in my jr.high school. So now I have a set of photos from Death Valley trip last March and would like to convert to B/W for printing. I know I can just go to effects and transfer, but wondering if there are other adjustments to make them stand out. I dont print my own, but interested now in looking into printers for that too.
looking forward to learning all this site offers. Thank you for any/all ideas on pictures and using the site.
paul

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

Welcome to UHH. Here is everything you need to know to get knock out images you took in Death Valley.
http://www.howtogeek.com/162781/how-to-convert-your-color-photos-to-stunning-black-and-white-prints/

joehel2 Loc: Cherry Hill, NJ

Welcome to the forum.

warrior Loc: Paso Robles CA

Check out Topaz Black and white effects. http://www.topazlabs.com

pecohen Loc: Central Maine

You did not say what software tools you have available and that will make a difference. If you have or are willing to buy software for this purpose then you might consider Lightroom and/or Topaz filters. Raw Therapee is available for free download and in the color tab of that program there are pretty nice adjustments for B&W conversion.

Fundamentally, converting to B&W is done by de-saturating. That being said, you may want to make other adjustments to produce a better result. One way to do this is to adjust the Red/Blue/green components independently. In a B&W image you may also want to increase contrast more than in a color image. You can also mimic - in software - using a color filter. You can do all of these operations in Raw Therapee, but you may find Topaz tools or Lightroom easier to use. Topaz has a B&W conversion tool that does these operations nicely, but it needs to be hosted by another editor - Lightroom, Photoshop, Paintshop Pro or photoFXlab (from Topaz) are commonly used.

Another tool from Topaz that I've used to good effect in doing B&W conversion is their Restyle tool - with saturation set to zero.

clickalot Loc: Chicago area

Another option is to use the B&W module (Silver Efex Pro 2) from the Nik software package, now made free by Google. If interested just search for it and download. It acts as a plugin to your main photo editing software, Photoshop Elements for me. It will provide a series of B&W screen views each with a corresponding set of presets. I usually pick the screen that is closest to the image I had in mind and then teak the slider settings of this preset to get the look I want. In general I have found the Nik software to be very good and easy to use. Before being made free, each module of the Nik software was sold separately and many reviews of these modules were favorable. Good luck.

WayneT Loc: Paris, TN

Welcome to the forum, good differing advise above.

P.Beau Loc: EG.RI

Thank you all I will look into your suggestions. I have a Mac and still use Aperture from their original offering to adjust photos, I know it is limited. I am starting to want to get more into processing/editing and this is a first venture. I shoot in RAW and generally just use tools in Aperture to change basid settings: Contrast, highlites/shadows etc.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Welcome to the forum.

warrior Loc: Paso Robles CA

Saturation and Hue : all the way left.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Apart from the usual plugins - which are quite good - particularly Nik Silver Efex, you can also get great conversions in Photoshop:

https://photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/7-black-and-white-photoshop-conversion-techniques--photo-488

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Right on Warrior. But Topaz B/W is so much more than just B&W! P.Beau get a 30 day and open the world. Discounts if you watch a webinar.

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

Welcome, from another old F-1 shooter. A lot of good info above. As far as printing youself take a look at the Canon pro 100. Often quite inexpensive, with rebates. But ink will set you back. For B&W prints I use Gloss paper.(also Canon). But that's just my preference. Happy new year.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

That is the least sophisticated method of conversion, and doesn't allow options on how the colors are rendered in B&W.

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

Paul, today b&w conversions are very easily done with the appropriate software. I would say that having a good background in b&w helps considerably since it is not only the conversion but also using the tricks we had available when we used the optical darkroom, like dodging and burning in. Many of the b&w images I see lack those two important parameters.
Most files when converted loose contrast. I like to add some warmth to the files once converted to try to resemble my past work on Agfa printing papers. Obviously, that is my taste.
Topaz and Nik have excellent softwares to make the conversions with lots of useful presets.