One of my goals for 2014 is to begin to process black and white images more than I have in the past. I am a believer that some photographers see primarily in color, while others have the ability to also see in B&W. Unfortunately, I see potential images in colors and have a difficult time envisioning them in B&W. Lucky for me that sometimes a particular image has a peculiar color cast that I just can't seem to get where I want it to, and I decide to try processing it in B&W. This was definitely the case with this scene from Saint Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. No matter what I tried, the color seemed off, and the intricate details simply did not come through as I remembered them.
To see if I could get an impactful result, I edited as I normally do, and then took the image into OnOne Software's B&W Module of it's Perfect Suite 8. There I was able get the tones to a place where the details on this hanging sculpture popped out from the back stained glass window. I am definitely pleased with the improvement that taking the color out of the image provided.