tip for aperture/lightroom users...

I picked this tip up off the web..tried it and it seems to work!

apply the black and white filter to your images before applying any levels/curves filters to adjust your contrast/ tonal range.....

then remove the black and white filter and adjust your color image.
full article here:

http://www.oreillynet.com/digitalmedia/blog/2007/10/adjusting_your_raw_files_in_bl.html

Sounds like a similar idea to converting to lab mode and then sharpening just the lightness (black and white) channel.

The concept will presumably be adjustment of the underlying black and white image without smearing the colour information.

This feature is built into Capture One. You can switch to straight B&W with a single keypress. I found it helpful - definitely. I'd switch to B&W and adjust, then back to colour and do a final tweak. (Very useful to "filter out" all the colour info and visualise an image)

Silkypix has a "Monochrome" colour setting... but it's not nearly as quick as Capture One. Shame.

In Photoshop you can add a ten-step gradient adjustment layer which helps see the image in "zones". (See my B&W tutorials on my web site) This is very, very helpful in seeing where the detail is. (Similar thing to LightZone, which I also rather like!) Here: http://www.ephotozine.com/article/Converting-colour-to-black-amp-white-using-the...
(Look at the bottom under "Maximising Tonal Range" )

Matt

that's interesting. i've recently taken to importing all my images into LR as bw. this has helped me pick out the crap shots easier by allowing me to concentrate on content and not be swayed by colour.

This works very well it really is a must know for anyone working with RAW files. The output is perfect

PS has had this for years.

Select any adjustment layer Curves, Levels etc and then set the blend mode to Luminosity, whatever the setting in the adjustment layer it will only be applied to the Luminosity i.e. the B&W part of the image data. Don't forget that there will be some black or white in the colours unless they're pure (unlikely) so even a Hue/Saturation Layer will have some effect on colour.

This works well when sharpening too (even when using Matt's excellent Sharpen O Matic action) Copy the layer Ctrl J, then set the blend to Luminosity you'll find you can drive USM a lot more before halo's start to appear.

Chris