Stepping back to Black, and White
 
I miss black and white. There is something about the simplicity of black and white, which allows for deeper thought about the image content itself. I tend to look deeper into the image for more information than a color image. I think that’s what appeals to many people who own an Ansel Adams print or have ever seen an Edward Weston nude. I had a chance to go off the reservation so to speak with a recent Ledger project. Ed Monti of Quincy has been carving sculptures in granite for most of his 83 years. I shot the story in color for the paper , but thought the images might work better in black and white. For the web I produced a sound slides project using the color images converted to grayscale.
 
 
 
 

 
I was surprised aT the texture and quality of the images after discarding the color data. The process was simple. First I made copies of all the images with a new file name, I just added BW in the file name. Now with them open in Photoshop drag down under Image, select Mode> Grayscale. Now select “discard color”. With the image in grayscale I selected levels to boost a little contrast. For a grittier look I also added a level of smartsharpen, or unsharp mask.
 
Most advanced pro or prosumer DSLRs will offer a monochrome shooting mode in their menu. If you shoot RAW in monochrome you will also have the color data in the image. The whole project can be seen here:

http://media.wickedlocal.com/patriotledger/slideshows/2010/Ed_Monti
Have fun.