Basic tips/techniques for conversions?

Very good reading ,Thank you Rense..

[Rense]

THanks for looking Mr. Rodgers. It was a nice thing to write up.

[dannyraphael]

Facinating discussion... I'm just getting into this type of transformation.

If you can get past the not-so-great mask job I did here, I've found that in some cases one can draw favorable attention to the subject by replacing a distracting background with a solid color.

On the right image it can work for color, too.

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re:
To get you going, some old filmsettings for the channelmixer:
Film %R %G %B
Agfa 200X 18,41,41
Agfapan 25 25,39,36
Agfapan 100 21,40,39
...etc.

FWIW I wrote a PS action awhile back to easily replicate the effects of these CM settings. Although it was a valuable learning exercise, the net was the differences among many of the setting combos was so little that it wasn't worth the time comparing them, so I went back to the "assess by eyeball" (what I liked) method.

[Rense]

yes a calm background can save a photo (B/W or not).

[RickC]

Originally Posted by Rense

digital: expose for the highlight, develop for the shadows.

Sounds like the rule I used in my Kodachrome days!If you didn't expose for the highlights, you'd lose all detail in those areas -- with no way to bring it back during printing since the detail was never there in first place when the shot was taken. That's why I like to use the "M" setting on my camera.