Black-white and grayscale to alpha conversion for images

Question

Is there an utility for converting all black-white and grayscale images from certain folder to the same images with adjusted alpha channel?

For example, for pixel (r:50, g:50, b:50, a:0) I would like to get (r:50, g:50, b:50, a:50) and (r:50, g:50, b:50, a:205) (inverse). Of course, this conversion is suitable only for image formats with alpha channel support (not JPG).

Or how can I do it with photoshop?

Background: I am a programmer and I am finding a way to do it without coding if it's possible.

Answer 1

You cannot with Photoshop. It's a very specialized operation you're seeking and will need to be done programmatic.

I'm not sure what the purpose is of moving the luminance as alpha, but be aware that RGB=50,50,50 will not produce the same result as with RGBA=50,50,50,50. The correct, visually, value would be RGBA=255,255,255,50 as alpha channel value of 50 will produce (A*R/255 or A*G/255 etc) 50*50/255 (=10) in your example, versus 50*255/255 (=50 same as the value without alpha channel).