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While I'm still experimenting with various types of B&W conversion.
This fella was actually giving directions to a couple of tourists when he turned around to notice me taking his picture. I thought he was going to come over and lump me one (he didn't fortunatley):

He certainly does look a bit peeved, doesn't he? Good photo btw.

Bruce

Nice photo. The first thing i thought of when i saw this photo was Private Gomer Pyle from Full Metal Jacket.


cheers

Nice shot Soulboy - this photo really shows a lot of emotion/expression. My only comment would be could you tone down the contrast a tad maybe? The back of his right hand/fist looks a little blown out on my monitor. great capture though!

Nice shot!

Looks like an extra from 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' !

Very powerful image, it could convey a number of scenarios, very strong emotions, good capture.

Good pic soulboy,

Glad to see he didn't come for you Run Run,

Please share your B&W Conversion.

Cheers,

Mic.

Bruno wrote:Nice photo. The first thing i thought of when i saw this photo was Private Gomer Pyle from Full Metal Jacket.


cheers

WHAT IS YOUR MAJOR MALFUNCTION PRIVATE!

Soulboy - looks like a member of the Britons First Party Great candid.

Thanks for your comments guys, if there's one thing I've noticed about my efforts with Photoshop recently is that I tend to go for a lot of contrast in my pictures. Not everyones cup of tea I know and I think I need to learn to judge where and when to use it.

As far as the B&W conversion:

First thing was to open the channel mixer adjustment layer, tick the monochrome box and set the RGB values to 33,33,34 respectively.

To boost the contrast a little I ran a very soft 600px burn brush over the image with the exposure set to 8px.

The next step was to open a hue/saturation adjustment layer between the image layer and the channel mixer layer (so that it's applied to the image). This is where you can play a bit with the saturation. I boosted the blues by about 40% and reduced the reds by about 30%. Depending on whether your image is predominantly light or dark will determine what works best. It's just a case of trial and error.

Once you're happy - flattern the image and you're done. However I added a very slight sepia tone by opening and hue/saturation layer, selecting the colourize box and entering 43 in the hue box. The overall opacity of this layer was reduced to 40%.

Flattern everything again and away you go.

It was interesting that Manta said he looked like an extra from Lock Stock, this picture was taken in Borough Market in Southwark, London where most of Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels was filmed.