Photos

[Re-post info]

Hi,
This is my first Black & White photo (version).
Thanks to the few critiques I received on the original, I figured the abandoned feeling probably would come more to it's right in B&W. jmcl said I could try a B&W, and I also figured this before I received his critique but after those of AthaPan & bostankorkulugu. After jmcl specifically mentioned that, I decided to give it a try.
I didn't know at all how to make a B&W photo from a colour photo, otherwise than using "Desaturate", but I read this was not a very proper way.
Searched for a better method via Google and think I found something.

Made this B&W with "Channel Mixer" in PS CS2.
Put on Monotone.
Red 48%, Green 40%, Blue 12%, totaling all three together on 100%.
Constant -3

And added contrast +7.

In the WS a closer look and offcenter composition.

I'd like to hear your critiques on the outcome.
A workshop showing another way to make a B&W from the original, would also be appreciated. Maybe you can come to a nicer result with other values.
I'd be glad to see it and hope to learn from it


[Original info]
This is some abandoned place I encountered during the day I spend on Ithaca/Ithaki.

[Photo scene info]
I don't know much about the scene, but I have found some info on the internet, supplied down here.
Well, I encountered this place while driving on the southern peninsula of Ithaca. A unsurfaced road leads to this place. It's abandonded, you'll find this bunker there, and a house, a few more in the distance..further no trace of any human activity, unless you encounter other visitors. Also there is a cave nearby.

I read a while ago that this place was inhabited, but all people left during a few years.
This place is located a few hundred meters above sealevel, on a plateau, called Marathias plateau. [map info available, as always]
The abandoned and silent feeling is overwhelming, atleast it is when you're really there. You can find this place if you drive to the southeast from Vathy, the main town on Ithaca. You'll first come through Perachori, a nice small, authentica Greek town.
I hope the abandoned feeling comes over a bit, through this photo.

[info from some website, found via google]
From Vathi it's a 5 km ride to the Marathiasplateau. In the Odyssee Homer describes that Eumaios herded his swine in this place. They're no longer here, but the landscape has not changed much.

We start walking at a height of 250 m, through an uninhabited area. A narrow track takes us up a hill. From the top we can see the whole fertile and cultivated valley, and a little further the bay of Vathi. We make a curve and cross a small sheltered valley where few traces of past cultivation remain. Apart from a few old wells and stone walls, no sign of human presence. We can only meet a wild goat or a buzzard.

We walk across a rocky landscape with low growth and an occasional olive tree. At the edge of the height we look down on the south coast of the island and across the channel to Kefalonia.
[/info]

I hope you like the shot.

[Photo technical info]
19mm, F8, 1/160th, ISO-200, Pattern Metering, EV +1,0

[PP involved]
Lens Correction, correcting vertical perspective and a bit distortion..hope it succeeded.
Levels, selectively on sky and everything minus sky. Some saturation adjustments (and brighten/darken)
Some sharpening, also selectively, on the end.
And a border + ©.