Converting colour photographs to black and white - understanding which colours turn blacker and which turn whiter
 

To understand what happens to colours when they are converted to grayscale monochrome look at the blue bird near the centre of the photograph. Depending which colours are used for the conversion the blue bird becomes either black, white or gray

Next Page: Forget the channel mixer
Using the black and white tool in Photoshop CS3
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The book aimed at photographers: Black and White in Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop Lightroom

   
Below is the original colour photograph as seen in Photoshop
When the Red channel is singled out
k3 ink  monochrome
When the Green channel is chosen Above the effect when choosing the Blue channel


Below is what Photoshop does when you choose Desaturate from the menu. 

Move mouse pointer over the picture to compare the slightly different effect if instead you simply convert the image to grayscale


desature versus grayscale
 
Next Page: Using the dedicated Black and White tool in Photoshop CS3