Paul,
No disparagement meant to your retoucher friend, but her statement is
foolish. She does good work judging by the picture you posted.
But I don't care. My "complicated recipe" for B&W conversion
generally takes about 20 seconds or less to do, is non-destructive,
and, in my opinion, produces superior results. Saying that "people
who do this have too much time on their hands" is just a gratuitous
slam without thought.
The translation of RGB values to monochrome is simply the first,
critical step. I prefer to work in a way that makes it clear what my
translation is doing to the spectral characteristics of the image ...
using the layered Channel Mixer approach allows that and works non-
destructively, so I can modify the rendering at any time without
having to go back to the original and change it before conversion.
The rest of the work in preparing/adjusting a B&W rendering is
exactly the same as what she does. That is the complex part that
takes time.
Godfrey
