B/W photos from digital

[Gubs]

Hi all,
I just got into digital photography by purchasing D-Rebel...It produces very good quality photos. However, when I try to drop grayscale and print, B/W don't look as good (both on screen and in print) as 35mm...

Is there some special technique I need to use in PS7 to achieve good results or is digital in general inadequate in that sense?

Any feedback is much appreciated...

[Sebastian]

A simple greyscale conversion is the easiest, and worst, way of making the image black and white. But that is only part of the equation. Unless a printer is calibrated, it will most likely have a strong color cast to the print. And even if it is calibrated, the color cast can still remain. The only way to get REALLY good B&W prints is to go with a dedicated black and white inking system. That means dedicating a printer to black and white and having a seperate machine for color.

For the image conversion tips, check out this thread.

[malum]

You could also try converting to a Duotone or Quadtone, as colour printers will handle the printing of these formats much better, if you choose the right one it will look for all intents and purposes B&W.

As mentioned a straight desaturation is not a good way to convert to B&W anyway, but the biggest problem lies in the printer. A colour printer will use all the inks to make B&W hues and won't look right.

to convert to B&W:
In PS I add a channel mixer layer then tick the monochrome box , then play with the levels of red green and blue until it looks good. Try to keep the total at around 100%. I find this the least painful way to get good results.