Shelby, really like your B&W conversions, Can yuo explain your work flow?
Thanks
Steven
Actually... I kind of "wing it"
Generally I get the contrast and color correct so that the file looks good in color as well. Then, I often just desaturate followed by a lot of free-hand dodging and burning. On foliage, I use the PS b&W filter sometimes to play with the green/yellow levels.
I also do a lot of feathered selections where I manipulate just certain portions of images to make them recede/advance visually. One thing I do a lot of (with portraits) is select the face and bump up the midtones while also adding density to the blacks... then I'll select inverse and make the midtones denser on the rest of the image. It's subtle, but it makes faces pop a bit more. I also add a subtle vignette to most of my images.
Grain... just "add noise" and fade to taste.
I can't be this picky with lots of wedding images so I often just use a b/w lightroom preset I've developed. If I want emphasis, I'll often drop the image exposure by 1/4 or 1/3 stop, then use an exposure brush at +1/3rd stop just on the parts I want emphasized. Quick and easy.