Lab color b&W from color

[wil]

since a lot of people are converting color to B&W I thought this would help.

* open your image and do all corrections
* go to the menu at the top of the screen and go to "image" - "mode" - "lab color"
*in layers palette click on the channels
* in the channels folder click on the "lightness channel"
* now go to the "image"-- "adjustments"-- "levels" and slide your pointer on the left and right of the histogram untill they meet the black in the histogram. Which is the begining of the detail.
* now go to "image" - "mode" -- "grayscale" and click on it
*last go to "image" - "mode" - "RGB"

I like this method better than the mode>grayscale>image>desaturate

 

[erniehatt]

I like this method also, you can also try the channel Mixer. Ernie

 

[wil]

Ernie,

When you do b&W do you convert each image or batch. I convert alot and doing a batch conversion would save a lot of time. If you know how to do this it would be great.
Thx..

 

[Unimaxium]

That has an interesting effect. Definately a lot different than what you get from desaturating, and and from what I normally get when I use the channel mixer. I like this method.