I had started a long writeup on black and white conversion from color images, and sort of lost track of where I put it. So, here is the action for Photoshop I had to go with the writeup. I am posting it here in my scraps for folks to try out until I get the time to redo the writeup with screenshots and conversion to pdf.

PURPOSE:

The primary purpose of this action for Photoshop is to convert a color image into a B&W counterpart without throwing away the color data while maintaining the luminosity values of the color.

The secondary purpose of this action is non-destructive creative control.

ACTION DETAILS:

This is not a simple action where each step can be outlined here. It would make this article far too long as there are 47 steps to it. But feel free to analyze the steps the action takes once you have it loaded into the action palette of Photoshop. What I will do though is describe the results of running this action as it pertains to the layers palette.

NOTE: The action creates a history snapshot of the state of your image before running this action called "Before Manyk BW".

The layers palette after the action runs:

Warmth Layer:
I personally do not care for the cool blue appearance of greyscale images on my display. So this layer adds just a bit of warmth to the image.


Contrast Punch Layer:
This is a curves adjustment layer with a slight "S" to the shape. The very dark and very light tones are slightly enhanced to give the tonality of the image a "punch."
The layer is set at 60% opacity by default. If you want more contrast, just adjust the opacity towards 100% ... for less contrast slide it towards 0%.


10 Step B-W Gradient Layer:
This is the B&W conversion method I personally prefer over any other single method. It is simply a gradient layer from black to white with 9 stops of gray in between to have more control over the tones of the image. Since this is an adjustment layer, it allows for far more non-destructive creative possibilities.


RGB Layers Group:
This is an approximation of converting the image to LAB mode to get the luminosity or "Lightness" of the combined colors. But with this method we have NOT thrown out any of the color data! The purpose of this group, primarily, is to bring luminosity into the B&W conversion. This method spreads the tones evenly throughout the image so that our conversion is not dull and lifeless as with most traditional methods of conversion.

The true beauty of this group is that the RGB channels have been copied to layers which are there for you to be creative with, without destroying your original color image. For interesting effects, try turning the visibility of one or two of the colors off. You can also swap or rearrange the RGB layers. You are not stuck with an RGB here folks, you could drag the Red layer between the Green and Blue layers. You can change the opacity of each layer and even change the layer blending mode from the default "Luminosity" for each layer.


Background Layer:
This is your original color image flattened, if it had layers before running my action.