Making a layer of a channel in PhotoShop CS (not CS2)

Just read a BW conversion technique suggested by John Paul Caponigro that seems

like a great idea. But I've hit a snag before I can get out of the box... His

directions on how to make a layer of each Channel (R,G,and B) doesn't seem to

work... either the steps aren't complete, the process is possible only in CS2,

or I'm just clueless (jokes not required, but go ahead if you must).<p>here's

what he says to do:<p><i>...activate the Red channel. On the Select menu,

choose All, and then copy the selected channel. It is important that you re-

select the RGB composite (the top image in the Channels palette), before going

to the next step. Choose Edit > Paste. The Red grayscale channel becomes a new

layer. Rename the layer as the color of the channel to keep the layers

organized</i>"<p>It's that step after "Select All and then copy the selected

Channel"... no go in my world, Edit Paste gets nothing pasted anywhere,

certainly not in the Layers Palette... Any ideas what's missing, or what I'm

missing, or if it's a CS2 thing? Thanks... t

That is funny, it really does work in CS2. Are you making sure you activate ONLY the Red channel in the first step? You can tell if you did it right if the image looks monochrome. The keyboard shortcuts are Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2, Ctrl+3.

I just did it in CS and it worked flawlessly. My guess is that you are not selecting only the Red or green or Blue channel before you copy it's contents to the clipboard and/or you are not then reselecting the RGB composite channel in the channel palette before you paste.

 

Will

 

Adobe CTI Photoshop

 

The linked file I have posted is an action that I wrote to do it in CS (or CS2 for that matter)

 

To download the action, Windows users can right mouse click on the link below and save the linked file as "Copy channels to Layers.atn". Mac users can Control-click the link.

 

What you will have downloaded are action files, they go in your Photoshop Actions folder which is in your "Presets" folder which is in your Photoshop Application folder on your hard drive. After restarting Photoshop, when you click on the Action palette options (the triangle in the upper right corner of palette, you can drag down to the action "Copy channels to Layers.atn" to load the action into your action palette. to play the action, flip down the triangle next to the folder "Copy channels to Layers" and then on the first step and then the "Play" button (the right facing arrow) at the bottom of the actions palette.

 

This action has been tested on Photoshop v. CS-CS2

<p>If you really can't do it that way in CS (I have no idea; I only have Elements), it's not hard to work around this. Make three duplicate layers, each with all the image data. On one layer, use Levels to change the B and G output levels to 0-0; now you only have R data remaining in that layer. Repeat for the other two layers with the other colours.</p>

grrrr... thanks guys. I'm on the only computer I own that doesn't hve PhotoShop. I'll try your suggestions tomorrow and report back. Thanks again... t

Got it. I wasn't doing the <Control C> with just one channel selected. This will be very good. Thanks all... t