RGB channels to layers

[Paul Powici]

Very much a newbie with Photoshop.  Recently saw a system to convert a colour image to black & white by copying each of the RGB channels to an individual layer, and then "painting" over a layer to reveal the one underneath where the one underneath is a better option for that particular part of the image.  (Hope that makes sense!)

However when I select (e.g.) the red channel - and copy and paste it into a new layer, the green and blue channels change to a copy of the red channel.  So now I have three identical channels.

Obviously I am going wrong somewhere.  Any help very much appreciated.

[Olaf Giermann · Accepted solution]

The channels panel shows a composite view for all layers. So if you paste the red channel's pixels as a layer, the channels panel only sees the grey pixels from that layer and not the color from the background-layer. You hast have to temporarily toggle off the visibility of the grey layer with the red channel's pixels to see the original channels in the channels panel again.

By the way, other than for learning purposes today I would not recommend such convoluted workflows anymore. 

[Paul Powici]

Many thanks and issue solved.

I agree convoluted but was interested to give it a try.