Digital BW, The Print

> For those of you converting Canon D30 images to black-and-white, what is
your 
> procedure?  Do you convert immediately and then make all adjustments in
> Photoshop to the black-and-white image?  Or, do you make some adjustments to
> the color image, convert to black-and-white, and make further adjustments?
> 
> Helene

I shoot in RAW mode, convert to 16 bit linear tiff with Canon's Image
Converter app, bring the file into Photoshop 6 as is (no color management),
assign a custom D30 linear profile, and then convert to my working space
(Adobe RGB).  I find that using the linear tiff conversion gives much better
control over highlights.  This part of the workflow is similar to that
developed by Fred Miranda (http://www.fredmiranda.com/LPbatch/index.html ).
If the file is destined for B&W printing then the next step would be
conversion to 16 bit greyscale (either using the channel mixer or the
Lightness channel in LAB mode).  Any required levels or curves adjustments
and sharpening are made in 16 bit mode before converting to 8 bit for
printing.