One of the [many] great features of photoshop is that we can create and store actions. This is a black and white action from eliot shepard which is based on one by bob carr.

This is the lobby of the Westin in Sydney, the one where they converted the GPO to a swanky hotel, restaurant, shopping complex.

• Convert to Lab Color (Image > Mode > Lab Color)
• Select the Lightness channel (Channels palette > Lightness channel)
• Convert to Grayscale (Image > Mode > Grayscale)
• Make the new channel the selection (Control-click the thumbnail in the new Gray channel)
• Invert selection (Select > Inverse) (Leave this selection active for the next steps)
• Fill the selection with black (Layer > New Fill Layer > Solid Color > Select color #000000)
• Tweak the opacity of the fill layer (Layers palette > select Color Fill > set opacity to ~50%)
• Create a new Levels (or Curves if you prefer) adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels)
• Tweak the levels in the adjustment layer as you like
• Select Background Layer (Layers palette > select Background)
• Duplicate layer (Layer > Duplicate Layer)
• Run the High Pass Filter (Filter > Other > High Pass > Radius 10)
• Convert the filtered layer’s blending mode to Hard Light (Layers palette > Select Background copy > set blending to Hard Light)
• Reduce the opacity of the Background copy layer to a good point (I start at 25%)