Black and White Exercise II

Here's another example of my exercise in trying to visualize scenes in black and white.  Again the first picture is the JPG, straight out of the camera with no post processing done.  Looking at it I thought it had possibilities.

The following is the RAW(NEF) picture with some minor curve adjustments made.  I normally optimize the RAW file to my liking before I convert to black and white. 

Finally, here's the final conversion using Nik Software's Silver Fx Pro.

At this point in my learning curve, I'm still not sure exactly what needs to be done to reach my final image in terms of curve adjustments, etc.  Silver Fx Pro allows one to quickly test a number of 'presets' which have various looks and emulate various films.  I normally cycle through the presets and choose one I like.  There's not a lot of thought involved, although there are times when none of the presets give me an image that I like.