I have realised that I have two types of black and white tones that I tend to favour. One of which is the low to middle toned shots that show a great detail of detail. Shadows, highlights are fairly evened out, and show you various details in the shot. The other type would be the extremely high contrast, almost zero middle tones and shadow details. Like this one -

Pushing on a little further....

All these are shot with the Ricoh GRD4, with edits via Lightroom 3, pushing the dark areas via the Levels & Curves, as well as pushing the brightness and contrast.

The loss of details in the shot may not be for many. But as I shoot and test out the various 'looks', this sort of treatment has a special effect, adding a level of impact to the eyes and mind. I like it.

VTP_DEN_07364 For those of you who are interested, the settings on my GRD4 goes something like this -

B&W High Contrast

Contrast Mode to Maximum

Sharpness to Maximum (I think)

In post edits, I increased the Levels & Curves, fooled around with the Brightness & Contrast as well.