Black and white; what is a good method?

So I will create a new action and press record. Then manually create three duplicate layers of the background. Use channel mixer on each layer to monochrome one in red, one in green one in blue. Then I stop recording. Whenever I press play on the button. The computer will automatically create three separate monochromed layers for me. because I am lazy.

*addition. I then manually change the master opacity and use the eraser to achieve the effect I want.

To clarify what I said earlier...

Color Masks:
Use the color wand to select colors (contiguous or non contiguous). Play with the tolerance to select what you want. Save selection as a channel. With your selection on do an adjustment layer and the mask will be set to your selection.

Contrast Masks:
Copy layer. Convert to B&W. Use levels to make a mask of what you want to change. Touch up with brush if needed. Save to a channel for later use as a selection or mask.


Channel Masks:
Use Image Calculations to apply various functions to seperate channels or layers to build a mask.

Blending:
Copy layer. Use a filter. Experiment with different filters, blending modes, and opacities. Mask as needed. These can be used for so many things...
Dream Glow Technique
Adjusting Focus of an Image and ehancing texture
Selective Sharpening
Making objects covered in ice
The list goes on and on....

Conversion:
Easy is destaturate.
Medium is Channel Mixer
Expert when needed is to copy each individual color channel as a layer in the image. Adjust individually and adjust opacity of each layer.

ive tried loads of different methods and i still dont think Digital B/W has got the same beauty as film....i think it will get there but its not *QUITE* there yet.
Ill be quite sad when i leave college and wont be able to develop my own b/w prints anymore.
Then ill have to learn the love the digi versions!

good luck

read the thread in "talk about photography" with martin and then come back and tell me that BW digital is not as great as film.

Don't be sad. Before I switched to digital I was film and if you want to stay that way there are plenty of darkrooms at local community centers, colleges, etc. that allow you to use them. Raleigh has one for $20 per year. The local colleges are a little more.