Lost River Range B&W

[acowan]

I haven't been out shooting as much lately so I decided to look through some pictures from this past summer with some fresh eyes. I found a couple pictures that I figured would look nice with a B&W conversion. These are from a backpacking trip in August to the Lost River Range in central Idaho. I've realized that some of my B&W conversions lately have been too flat with contrast. I tried to think more in the Zone system when processing these. Please let me know what you think of the conversions and if I went too far or not far enough...

1. Mount Borah and the Lost River Range (taken from the east face of Leatherman Peak). The brightness of the left side of the frame was brought down with the adjustment brush (this area became too bright upon a curve adjustment.) I've also darken the sky 0.3 stops with the adjustment brush.
http://acowanphoto.smugmug.com/Black-and-White/Black-and-White/Mount-Borah-and-the-Lost-River/771389742_Tvqbd-L.jpg

2. East face of the Lost River Range taken from the Pahsimeroi Valley. maybe the cloud could be a little brighter but I wanted to retain some detail in it so I brought down the exposure with the adjustment brush which was necessary after an Expanded Mid-Tones Curves adjustment.
http://aaroncowanphotos.com/Black-and-White/Black-and-White/Lost-River-Range-and-cloud/771405313_KiyCh-L.jpg

[Wicked_Dark]

They are both majestic shot. I think the first could use a tad more contrast - get those blacks blacker. You're on the right track.

[acowan]

That was my feeling after I posted both the shots and saw them on the same screen. I didn't want to darken the mountainside in shade too much but I have managed to darken it a little bit more. Whaddya think?

http://aaroncowanphotos.com/Black-and-White/Black-and-White/Mount-Borah-and-the-Lost-River/771427857_kQY8h-L.jpg

[Wicked_Dark]

It definitely looks richer as a result. doesn't look like overkill on my monitor. Nice.