It is always good to learn the past history of doing “things”, but it is bad if you blindly follow a set of rules -especially in art. The above image breaks many rules in photography. It is taken at an F stop that has sharpness issues due to diffraction,it was taken without a Neutral Density density filter to blur the water, and it was taken with a lens seldom used for landscapes (long telephoto). But I didn’t have a ND filter with me, I only had a really long lens, and I needed low ISO, slow shutter speeds, and a small F stop to get the proper exposure for the effect. So I ask you, did breaking the rules work?

For Dramatic B&W images use HDR
When you convert color images to B&W for digital, if your software has a HDR filter use it on the color version before you convert to B&W for maximum tonal range:

I know so many photographers and other types of artists that are afraid of doing something different. Here is an exercise for you, take a picture or painting you really like that you’ve done and change it. Make several different versions in different styles – go from oils to water colors, color to black and white, or from realistic to interpretive. Experiment and find a new point of view:

I liked the photograph but not nearly as much as this digital art rendition.