Digital BW, The Print

Hello Alan,

 I hate to jump into the hornets nest this question seems to have 
stirred up, but I would like to put my two cents in. For what it's 
worth, when we take a picture with whatever camera we choose, our 
main goal is not to exactly reproduce what we see; which you indicate 
with your question. Your intention is to alter what the eye sees into 
something else that fits your perception of what the image can become 
with your help. If you are using Photoshop, then the tools you need 
are already there; the hard part is always finding them in the right 
combination. 

This is the way I convert into color:

1. Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Hue/Saturation
2. Edit Master>Hue>-(minus)180 Saturation>-(minus)100 Lightness>000 OK
3. Image>Mode>Lab Color with Flatten
4. Channel>delete A(the letter A) channel then delete Alpha2 channel
5. Image>Mode>Grayscale
6. Continue with your adjustments with sharpening being the very last 
step done before saving the final image for printing.

This will give your a B&W image.

Note change only to the B&W image after all the work you want done on 
the color image is complete except the sharpening step.

I hope this helps some with your question without all the scientific 
jargon I've seen in some of the messages so far. If I've stepped on 
any toes, I apologize.

Your friend in Photography,

Johnny Eades

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "A. Huntley" 
<Alan.Huntley@c...> wrote:
> First, a very Happy Holiday to all list members celebrating 
Thanksgiving today.
> 
> I'm once again re-evaluating the use of RGB-to-grayscale conversion 
tools and plugins. I know that a few list members use the film 
filters from silveroxide.com, and a few use Convert to B&W Pro from 
imagingfactory.com. I have only ever done a brief evaluation of B&W 
Pro. Any thoughts as to which product would be preferred? Why would 
anyone spend $75 per filter through silveroxide when B&W Pro contains 
most popular film conversions for $99?
> 
> Thank you for any insight provided.
> 
> Alan Huntley
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]