Starting.. here:

What Makes a Good B&W Photo?


Quick reference guide to tips to improve:

15 Tips For Stunning Black and White Photography


And a good good synopsis of the techniques that can be employed:

Converting a Color Photo into Black and White - cambridgeincolour.com
(A small popup will appear, just click and close to return to the article/tutorial.)


Anybody else have something to share/add?


Cookies and refreshments are over there..

(*points to table in corner*)

Cookies! Yum. And helpful information.

Have a favour to ask of you, Connie.. could you keep an eye on *that* guy..

(*points in mirror to hisownself*)

He has a tendency to.. let's say.. 'overindulge where cookies are concerned', to be polite.

Try to keep a rein on his intake/inhalation of the baked good good goodness.

It is rumoured that he flies in the face of the convention with respect to the suggested consumption amounts ... and considers, for example, a sleeve of Date Newtons (that's right, I said it.. date, not fig) ... as a 'single serving'.

Thanks.

... ...

... ...

I really need to cut down on the caffeine..

I'm not going to be much help in regulating anyone else in regard to their consumption of baked goods without incurring the charge of hypocrisy...I have a sweet tooth! lol

Finally.. someone who understands the power of baked good good goodness!


Sweet tooth?

Nay, not here..

(*crosses fingers behind his back.. and arms, legs and eyes for good measure*)

Aha! Found it!

A gorgeous Black & White conversion technique:

Gorman-Holbert Conversion Method

"Like other Luminosity Based methods, the Gorman method does not take advantage of the color information in the photograph. It relies entirely on the image's luminosity and intensifies them with Solid Color Toning. Gorman works especially well on fabrics and curved surfaces, and on portraits."

im thinkin blacks and whites and different shades of the same.

to many quotes

Thank you for the link to the Gorman-Holbert Conversion Method.
Doing a bit of experimenting :)

Likewise, Les. Will give the G-H a try on my next B&W.

-Nik

Good good walkthrough(s)/introduction(s) of the workflow of B & W conversion(s).

Start.. here:

Photoshop black and white conversion tips: the best ways to make mono images


... and then follow along with the links at the bottom of each page ("PAGE 1 - Photoshop black and white conversion: use a black and white Adjustment Layer", "PAGE 2 - Photoshop black and white conversion: use the hand", ...).

For the Adobe Lightroom fans out there:

How to Convert Portraits to B&W with Lightroom 4

"In this tutorial I will show you how to convert a portrait (shot in RAW format) to a black & white image using Lightroom 4. By the end of the tutorial, and with some practice, I hope to teach you how to have full control over the look of your B&W images. While I chose this particular look for this particular portrait, Lightroom offers many kinds of different ways to convert your images to black & white, and so it's impossible to put all the looks into one tutorial. Certain conversions fit certain images better than others, and it also depends on taste and goal of the author. In the future, I hope to make more tutorials for both black & white and color photography with different conversion methods and looks."