Digital Home Thoughts: Better Black & White Conversion

"Long long ago, Black-and-White ruled the Earth. Frosty white highlights frolicked with rich black shadows in the Meadows of Grayscale, and it was good. Then came Digital, whose dingy whites and muddy grays nearly drove Black-and-White to extinction. But now, like wild-eyed scientists cloning a mammoth, we've found the best ways to convert digital color photos into the REAL honest-to-goodness-that-looks-like-Ansel-Adams-took-it Black-and-White. NOT the pale washwater grays and off-white whites you get with "Convert to grayscale". And we're going to show you how."

Some of the most beautiful and compelling photographs are black-and-white. While some digital cameras offer a black-and-white mode, there are a variety of ways to convert any color picture to black-and-white which allow you to have control over the final product. Over at Photojojo they've posted a great tutorial on using the channel mixer to customize a black-and-white conversion.