I was wondering if anyone in this very cool, unique group has any tricks in converting color to black & white (beyond the obvious: desaturation, contrast). In this example, after desaturation and increased contrast, I made a duplicate layer, and did an overlay with the two layers. Then I adjusted the opacity of the duplicate layer to around 40%. In places where the darker areas lose their detail (as in this case the eyes), I used the eraser tool at about 30% to take away just enough of the duplicate layer to allow some detail to return. I came about this method by accident from staying up too many nights, way too late. Im sure there are other things to do too. Any different suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Try taking the channels of the color RGB(i assume) and cut and pasting them into LAYERS of a new empty document. then use all the goodies like contrast and brightness, opacity, etc. You can get some interesting results. The red channel alone can be altered to resemble an infrared photograph. The blue channel is almost the same results as using orthochromatic film(blue sensitive). Just keep messing around. Very nice photo by the way. I actually like the black and white better, but they are both very well done.

Thanks nplus, I wouldnt have thought of that. Ill give it a try tonight. If there are any more ideas, Id love to hear em!

The shotgun is a good idea. I just might kill somebody though. I know how pigdogs think! Oh well. I knew there had to be several ways to do the same thing in Photoshop. There usually is. I realize you are re-posting a JPEG, and probably did a rush job on it, but I have a couple of observation/questions. Her complexion looks better on yours, and there seems to be less overall contrast. That may be a factor. I realize that its difficult to match up monitors, but do you think mine has too much contrast? Also, Im a fanatic when it comes to losing any detail in a photograph while working on it, whether it results from an area becoming too dark or too bright. I noticed that some of the bright areas of her hair on yours did lose some of the detail. If you had wanted to avoid that, would you have used the magic wand/feather/inverse before adjusting the other areas? Just curious, because thats what I do. I dont know if that would work with your method because I havent had the time to try it out yet, but plan to. Other than what I mentioned, do you see much of a difference between the two pictures? Thanks for the input! :~

Well, I've gots lots of ideas to play with. Many thanks!!!