Another Black and White Conversion Question

I've downloaded presets for Lightroom and actions for Photoshop and tried many of them. Black and white is new to me and I don't have the eye to determine what is the most accurate conversion.

Can anyone that works in black and white make a recommendation as to which method, action, preset, etc.. gives the most accurate conversion, at least as a starting point to work from. Some seem like they add too much contrast or one channel is too high and they don't look like black and whites I see elsewhere.

Robert i just got done reading the B&W chapter of Kelby's book for Lightroom. His suggested method is to select greyscale in the Hue/ Saturation/Greyscale section in the Develop Module. Then select the Auto Tone in the Basic Section. Then go back to the Greyscale section, click the Target adjustment tool and adjust contrast with that (this basically adjusts the photo like the Channel Mixer in PS).

Also, post the pic and let us try. We can then save the preset and upload here.

Thank you Mike. Funny you should mention that. I just received my copy of the book today and wasn't sure if that was covered so I a posted. I'm going to try that and dig into the book this evening. I love the way Scott Kelby does his video tutorials and his other books. This looks like a great book.

I have a feeling my entire work flow will improve after I work with the book a bit.

TMR Design wrote in post #3427509
Thank you Mike. Funny you should mention that. I just received my copy of the book today and wasn't sure if that was covered so I a posted. I'm going to try that and dig into the book this evening. I love the way Scott Kelby does his video tutorials and his other books. This looks like a great book.

I have a feeling my entire work flow will improve after I work with the book a bit.

I have learned lots from the book so far. The B&W is Chapter 6 but of course he recommends reading from start ot finish.

I really like B&W photos and want to do more of this. Can you recomend a good way to convert using PE5? I have Kelby's book for PE5 and he has 3 different ways to do it. Do you have a favorite way you could recomend that I could try. I'll post a picture sometime soon, but I'm currently attacking another project of mine - organizing my pictures in the Organizer. One thing at a time. : ) Too many things at once and I freeze like a deer in the headlights.

Karen

Hey Mike,

OK, I skipped ahead to the Black and White chapter just to see what the other methods were and I think I found what will work for this particular shot and model. Interestingly enough, the built in Grayscale and a few adjustments looks better than all the other presets and Photoshop actions I've looked at.

Anyway, here is what I came up with. Tell me what you think and what might make it better please.

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