Red Rock Canyon

Rocks look good but yes you have some noise in the sky.

The tones good very nice, but you definitely have some noise in the sky. I like the composition a lot.

Real nice image, Danny. The B&W works really well. Can you convert it in Photoshop and not have the noise problem?

Really like the b&w with the light and shadow on the rocks. I think the conversion was a good choice.

I don't use Silver Efex, so I can't comment on that. The tones look nice with good separation in the mids. The clouds really help the balance of the comp. It does look a little 'crunchy' (noise or USM?)

I usually use the Channel Mixer on the RGB image in PS to do conversions and don't have noise issues. If you have PS, give it a try. If you get stuck, shoot me an e-mail.

--P

Thanks everyone for the comments
Preston, Harley,
I used to use channel mixes a lot never had much of a problem with noise, then in PSC4 I did most of the conv. with the B&W adj. layer, never had much of a noise problem either. I'm getting in touch with Nik Software, maybe its something I'm doing wrong.But the B&W in CANP was done in Silver Efex Pro 2 also, I don't seem to have a noise problem on that.Its probably something I'm doing.

I use Silver Efex a lot and don't have any particular noise problem. There is an option that mimics different b&w films that will add noise depending on which film you select. Anyway you can easily get rid of the sky noise here when you're back in PS by selecting the sky and using the Reduce Noise filter. That would help this image for sure. Everything else in the conversion looks pretty good.

Wonderful comp and tones. Feels a bit crispy on the sharpening, but maybe that's the noise issue.

A very nice comp and b/w conversion, Danny. I don't use Silver Efex, but it does look like some heavy grain on the image. I agree with Tony re sharpening seems a bit hard. Nice work all the same.

Superb BW conversion here, Danny. I use Silver Efx Pro version 1. Like Barry said, if you are using one of their presets, go into the "Film Type" drop down and check your 'grain' sliders. Having said that, I find that the 'structure' slider cranked up tends to add some noise. However, the toning the software does is so excellent that I'm happy to run Noise Ninja afterwards for the sky if need be.