I’m glad you like it, Claude! Actually, I stopped using the black and white setting on my digicam last year (David taught me the tonal range is better in colour; convert to B&W later), and this is a film shot and for C-41 ease of developing I only shoot in colour.

Photodoto (fd’s site, the maker of flickrtoys) has a straightforward tutorial on converting to black and white.

Personally, my main method is using channel mixer, and the channel I fiddle with the most is red. You can see how the red channel would be most useful here, because red is such an important colour to Chinese culture and the gates are always red. The sun is bright, casting the dragon’s face into dark shadows, and the best way to bright out the detail is using the red channel.