Every single B&W conversion I have done since Fall 2010 has been with Silver Efex. It is a fantastic piece of software.
These are my latest conversions:
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The clutches and fans were hand painted by my wife. She asked if I would take some photographs that she could use for documentation and promotional purposes. The photos were taken in a stairwell at the premises of the Puerto Rico Museum of Contemporary Art, using my Canon EOS 50D (sorry, not compact) and 17-40mm 4.0L lens. The photographs were processed as follows:
1. RAW files were converted with Adobe Camera Raw and opened in Photoshop CS5.
2. A curves adjustment layer was applied to add some contrast.
3. Silver Efex was opened as an Adjustment Layer. I used the High Structure preset and sepia toning. On some of the shots adjustment points were used to lighten shadows or tame highlights.
4. A mask was painted on the Silver Efex layer to allow for the selective color of the clutches and fans.
5. Finally, the file was sharpened using Unsharp Mask.
My wife was very pleased with the results.
Cheers,
Antonio