Converting the greyscale is better than desaturating, as it reduces the amount of noise. Once you're in greyscale mode, go back to RGB. Then you can either go to auto levels or brightness/contrast. I normally do both. After doing auto levels I go into B/C and in the brightness slider do about -10. In contrast I normally do +10, but it varies depending on how I want the photo to look. It's a good rule of thumb to make sure that at least one bit of the photo is pure black and one is pure white, especially in B&W. Also, to stop it looking too boring still, you can go to hue/saturation and click colourise. Then move the hue over to red and the saturation almost all the way down, to about 5 or 6. This adds a little bit of warmth to the photo but it is subtle enough for a lot of people to only notice it subconciously.
Edit: I think the 2nd place photo is slightly colourised.
Message edited by author 2004-01-26 05:16:25.
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