Digital BW, The Print

Just tried something out of curiosity and it worked well.  I had a color RGB file 
that I converted to B&W using the Convert to B&W Pro plug-in.  Also did some 
curves and levels adjustments.  Saved it as a separate RGB file (I'd probably 
convert it to grayscale b/f printing but hadn't printed it yet -- this tip won't work if 
the B&W file is in grayscale, though).

I re-opened the original color RGB file and the coverted B&W RGB file.  I ran 
the "match color" (not "replace color") image adjustment on this file, selecting 
the converted B&W file as the source for the "match."  Viola: the color RGB file 
now looks exactly the same as the B&W RGB file.

Why do I think this is cool?  B/C even using a plug-in like Convert to B&W Pro, 
I make additional adjustments (curves, levels).  Instead of having to repeat 
those adjustments on other color images (at least on those with a similar 
contrast and tonality -- I'm not sure how well this would work with an image 
with an entirely differet contrast range), I just run "Match Color" and it's a one 
step process for future files.  If you're doing your conversion to B&W using all 
manual steps (desaturate/channel mixer, whatever), I'd imagine this would 
save you even more time.

(OK, it just occured to me that you could do the same thing by creating an 
action that saves all the steps you do when converting an image to B&W.  So 
maybe this isn't so cool after all).

BTW, for those of you who don't have CS yet, both the Match Color and 
Replace Color tools work surprisingly well in general.

Well, I guess is just one more trick to store in the bag:)

I have set up a b&w action with preset curves and channel mixing 
settings and even though it gets everything close, I put everything 
on adjustment layers and always go back and tweak things a bit... 
just a tiny bit seems to make a big difference... why I don't think 
preset tools are ever the best choice... nice to have a quick look 
tool though...

mark

PS  With CS I find that Levels are almost never needed!  Just pop up 
the realtime histogram and make your expansion adjustments using 
curve endpoints and then tweak gamma with the curve in between.

...
> (OK, it just occured to me that you could do the same thing by 
creating an 
> action that saves all the steps you do when converting an image to 
B&W.  So 
> maybe this isn't so cool after all).
> 
> BTW, for those of you who don't have CS yet, both the Match Color 
and 
> Replace Color tools work surprisingly well in general.