Making B&W photos pop

[Shanan]

I have Photoshop Elements 3 on my computer. I do love B&W photos but mine just don't 'pop' like other ones I have seen. I do sharpen, noise reduction, etc but am missing the fine tuning that others have. Can anyone give me any tips or recommend a B&W action that I could download? Any hints or help would be greatly appreciated.

[MarkBarbieri]

Try adjusting the colors before you convert to BW. For example, if you darken the blues, your sky will darken and your clouds will stand out more.

[jann1033]

virtual photographer and xero have b&w settings

vp http://www.optikvervelabs.com/

xero, mostly different effects but you might like one that umphs up your b&w for you...i love the vignette and there are some revamped ones on his site
http://www.xero-graphics.co.uk/xl/info.htm. xero i usually convert first then do some other effect like mist with the xero

also i really like alien skin exposure..it has such cool b&w and color effects.i did this one with alien skin, of course it helps to have a contrasty subject to start with.( and the watermark is wrong casue that domain was already taken and i'm to lazy to go back and change it.)http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b332/jann1033/poetry%20in%20light/20071113218copy.jpg
i like alienskin cause you have a ton of choices from a harsh landscape which is really contrastly to softer conversions...so you can change it alot due to subject and the effect you want.
i've been playing with the loma settings lately in ase which is color (and ot;)) but the B&w is good as well.i've been getting a little crazy but this is one i just did( loma processing, it's rocks with a stream running over them if you can't tell, i thought it made it really close to an abstract painting effect.)http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b332/jann1033/B0000054_pbwmfiltered.jpg

agree with mark, i up the contrast and make the levels midpoint more contrasting than i normally would..you just have to be careful not to make it so contrasting if blows out the highlights( although sometime i like that super contrasting look ) i also play around more after i convert with brightness, contrast and sometimes shadows and highlights if i use something other than ase to convert ( that has a place to adjust that )
xero has places to change the red/blue/green channels so you can play around before you convert it. virtual photo doesn't give you as much to change.

and really and truly so far i don't see anything digital that just has the identical b&w film quality but these help some...