Elsa Hoffmann challenged me...

[Akira]

Oh no, no personal problem.   

On Facebook, Elsa handed me the challenge of posting seven B&W images each day for a week.  She says this kind of challenge is popular among the photographers in SA.　　Although many of my favorite photographers shot B&W (HCB, Brassai, Jeanloup Shief, Robert Doiseneau, Joseph Sudek, to name a few), I'm not familiar with the B&W processing.  I had no experience of developing B&W films myself during the film days either.  Nevertheless, I took the challenge, and here are the results.

All except the waterfall image were originally intended for the color, but I thought they could look nice in B&W as well.  As the file names indicate, the images were posted in this order.

EDIT:

I misspelled Elsa's family name.  Sorry Elsa!     And thanks, Werner, for the note!

[Ethan]

tssst - tssst - tssst Akira!

It is Jean Loup Sieff and Robert Doisneau and Josef Sudek.

I thank you.

[Fons Baerken]

very nice Akira

[Bent Hjarbo]

Thisted type og challenge is widespread on Facebook.
You have done very well. Nice images.
Br Bent who also was challenged 

[David H. Hartman]

A major "secret" for B&W is mid range contrast. A light "S" curve with LCH will add punch. Also try B&W contrast filters. Ansel Adams exposed one 8x10 sheet and then realized the photograph wouldn't have the impact, the grandeur that he felt so he used a deep red filter to render a near black sky. The result was Monolith The Face Of Half Dome. Adding a deep red filter or orange or yellow filter is easy with an NEF file before or after shooting.

I hope this helps. Maybe it's all familiar?

Dave

[Akira]

tssst - tssst - tssst Akira!

It is Jean Loup Sieff and Robert Doisneau and Josef Sudek.

Ethan, thanks for the correction!  Apparently "Jeanloup" should be one word, though.  All are my favorites, for sure!

Fons and Bent, thank you!

David, thanks for the advice.  For this challenge, I only tweaked the sliders of ACR.  I like the effect of the contrast filters, especially the black sky.  I haven't seen the print of Monolith, but on the web, the halo to the front of the cliff looks somewhat unnatural or over processed?  Other prints of Ansel Adams that I saw showed great contrast effects.  On the other hand, the prints of Doisneau, Sudek or even HCB showed smoother mid tones which I liked, too.

[Jakov Minić]

I stand by my comment on Facebook, Mr Cloud, that first one is your best to date. I love it!

[bobfriedman]

sweet.. very nice.. elsa must know that you have a hidden talent for B&W.. perhaps time for RG830 IR or higher?

[Frank Fremerey]

These 7 images are the best I have seen so far, from you, my beloved Akira. If you continue this way I will kneel down and pray to god. Good for you!

[Frank Fremerey]

Restriction might be all it needs?

Ability and Possibility and Power and Reign might all be exaggeratred?

[Akira]

I stand by my comment on Facebook, Mr Cloud, that first one is your best to date. I love it!

Thanks, Jakov.  Indeed this has turned out to be my favorite image of the clouds many times!

sweet.. very nice.. elsa must know that you have a hidden talent for B&W.. perhaps time for RG830 IR or higher?

Thanks, Bob.  As I mentioned above, I love B&W photographers.  But I haven't have how I want to make my images look good in B&W, or how I should, would or could translate those color images into the B&W ones.  This challenge may have given me the opportunities to take a glance at the territory...

These 7 images are the best I have seen so far, from you, my beloved Akira. If you continue this way I will kneel down and pray to god. Good for you!

Restriction might be all it needs?

Ability and Possibility and Power and Reign might all be exaggeratred?

Frank, you are too kind, but you raised the bar!    That may be the real purpose of Elsa's challenge.

And, yes, the restriction is "the" great source of inspiration.

[Thomas Stellwag]

extraordinary pictures
 no 1 and 2  my personal favs

[Akira]

Thanks, Thomas, for stopping by.  Glad you like some of the images.