Okay, a question I’ve always wanted go ask (as I work to improve my b/w skills, which are lacking). There are an insane array of b/w approaches, and it seems to me that skies can be especially tricky. You often opt for this black sky effect. It’s dramatic, but sometimes jarring because we know skies aren’t black in a scene like this. I guess I wonder a) how you do it, and b) what’s the driver behind the decision?
The how: Most important: Shoot at a right angle to the direction of the sun. In SilverEfex Pro, use graduated neutral density filter to keep the lower half properly exposed and upper half to underexpose the sky A BIT. I rarely use the red filter. Most often I use the blue and cyan monochrome sliders to complete the darkening. I usually run the image through ColorEfex after this to use 1) Glow, because its shadow slider is a useful tool, and 2) tonal contrast can be useful.
5280 Lens Mafia 
Okay, a question I’ve always wanted go ask (as I work to improve my b/w skills, which are lacking). There are an insane array of b/w approaches, and it seems to me that skies can be especially tricky. You often opt for this black sky effect. It’s dramatic, but sometimes jarring because we know skies aren’t black in a scene like this. I guess I wonder a) how you do it, and b) what’s the driver behind the decision?
Because you know how jarring unrealism bugs me….
The how: Most important: Shoot at a right angle to the direction of the sun. In SilverEfex Pro, use graduated neutral density filter to keep the lower half properly exposed and upper half to underexpose the sky A BIT. I rarely use the red filter. Most often I use the blue and cyan monochrome sliders to complete the darkening. I usually run the image through ColorEfex after this to use 1) Glow, because its shadow slider is a useful tool, and 2) tonal contrast can be useful.
The why: I like it like this.