Do I do something wrong? Layer type conversion

[The Mis']

Hello, that is my first post here so please be gentle with me - I'm still learning Photoline.
Anyway - I have tiff image. I duplicate background layer, switch off visibility of background layer, and set new layer as the working one.
Then I change the type of the new layer into the Lab one - the invisible background layer is still the RGB type. Now if I click on "channels" I cannot see L, a and b channels as expected but still have RGB ones.
Am I doing something wrong? Or everything is correct and I do not know something?
Thanks in advance for your answers.

BTW: Mac OS x 10.5.8, Photoline 15.50 and 15.51 trial

[akeller]

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[The Mis']

Hello The Mis’
The background layer is determining the color mode for the entire picture.

So that means if I want to play with only one channel on one particular layer, I have to convert the whole image into Lab (or any other layer type) then create copy of background layer, play with the channel, merge the layers and convert the image back into RGB type. Am I right?

But you can do a lot of actions (sharpening, curves, etc.) for a layer in a different color model just by using the drop down menu in the dialogs.
Therefore there is no need to convert a picture or a layer into another color mode.

I knew that. It is quite handy. But some time you need more.
Thank you for the quick answer.

[akeller]

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[Hoogo]

In picture mode the shown channels depend on the mode of the background layer. This channel-view does not exactly display the channels of the active layer, but it displays the whole resulting picture, and that is calculated in the mode of the background layer. However, in document mode it is always RGB.

The available channels for the brush depend on the mode of the layer.

[The Mis']

Thanks guys!