[nanbil]

Sometimes a 'bad' colour photo will make a good black and white photograph. There are several ways to do this.

The first possibility is to use the standard greyscale conversion that all graphic programs offer. In Paint Shop Pro, it's hidden under the menu [Image][Greyscale]. All three colour channels are averaged. Most programs perform a weighted average of the 3 channels, and the result is usually pretty bland in my opinion.

Better yet, try activating the menu [Image][Split Channel][Split to RGB] on the original colour image. This will create 3 new images containing a different colour channel each. Yes, they show as greyscale because they are just intensity maps of red, green and blue, separately. Keep the red channel and the contrast is a little better than on the standard greyscale conversion.

Now apply a custom mix of image enhancement functions in order to get the final image. Duplicate the base layer and perform a [One Step Photo Fix]. Then make another copy of the base layer and perform a [Clarify] for a very dramatic sky. Mix up the layers with a 30 to 50% partial opacity.

To finish off apply a noise cleaning filter to the clarified channel which tends to increase the noise too much.