When you shoot or compose your subject squint at the image and try to discern 6-7 tonal values. Also ask yourself also how you can interpret and suggest color using gray scale. How can you make viewers experience and suggest color within a black and white image.
You should shoot this assignment with color film or digital media. When you have acquired your images I will show you how to convert your files from RGB color images to RGB black and white and grayscale images. The final black and white images should be stripped to gray scale images with a 2.2 Gamma ICC profile. The following PDF files is a useful printing tutorial to learn 7K Cone editions RIP Tutorial (Raster Image Processor) 7K Cone editions RIP User Guide software from within Photoshop. This tutorial will help you when you output your images to the Epson black and whitel printer. To find out more about black and white printing and inks follow this link.
The following web pages provide useful tutorials on how to convert your images:
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/color-black-white.htm
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/bwfromcol.html
http://www.insidegraphics.com/digital_art/photoshop_channel_mixer.asp