a first success
I had an early success using some hints and rumors I had heard from those days long ago in which I played with lense filters and black and white film and my slr camera making a digital color image give a healthier look to fleshtones.
The color photograph on the left was transformed into the grayscale by multiplying the green over the equalized value. This effect can be easily scripted.
the next failure
My next attempt to do the same thing on a photograph that seemed to me would be a natural for this effect failed. The image of green multiplied with an equalized value (for this image) is terrible.
I think this is a special case where the original image is too dark, so scripted desaturation will fail.
I used the green layer moded as Darken Only and the opacity set to 42% over the despeckled value to make this better image.
another limited success
The method of multiplying green over equalized value worked once again did not transform this image so well. It left large spots of white.
Success this time by not running the Equalize filter. It should be scripted with Equalize as an option.