Saving as a 16-bit or 18-bit TIFF?

8 bit = 256 colours
16 bit = 32,769 colours

Unless you have a specific reason to, (some progs dont work above 8bit) always choose 16bit.
 
Last edited:
What are you saving them in TIFF for? to work on 16bit, to post on web Jpg, just to keep on disk I keep all mine in Raw.
The only time I use TIFF is from ACR to CS6 or to send to a publishing company for magazine work.
As for How to save need to know what software you're using. Norm is in file / save as then pick from dropdown box.
 
Gr8Shot said:
8 bit = 256 colours
16 bit = 32,769 colours

Unless you have a specific reason to, (some progs dont work above 8bit) always choose 16bit.
Click to expand...

256 colours per channel... = 16777216 colours

32,769 colours per channel... = 35187593412609 colours


16bit is my preferred option. Dev through from LR in 16bit TIFF, then do as much as I can in 16bit. 8 bit can produce banding in gradients and skies I find. If you need to do anything that's only available in 8 bit mode, leave it until last... do as much as you can in 16bit first.
 
Unfortunately Elements 11 only supports a few edits in 16bit. Adobe want you to purchase cs6 for all the features that support 16 bit editing. So unfortunately sometimes it will not be possible.
If you want 16bit images id suggest buying LR4.
 
Gr8Shot said:
Unfortunately Elements 11 only supports a few edits in 16bit. Adobe want you to purchase cs6 for all the features that support 16 bit editing. So unfortunately sometimes it will not be possible.
If you want 16bit images id suggest buying LR4.
Click to expand...

Ah that's an issue then.
To be honest I've never found the need for a 16 bit image. Why will I need one really? The quality I'm seeing now is more than enough at 8 bit surely?

Could saving as a photoshop psd file be as good as a 16 bit ?
 
Does elements have smart objects? If you convert the image/layer to a smart object in 16 bit prior to switching to 8bit for additional functions you can then go back and edit the smart object and it will still be in 16bit.

It can make a huge difference....
 
WillNicholls said:
To be honest I've never found the need for a 16 bit image. Why will I need one really? The quality I'm seeing now is more than enough at 8 bit surely?
Click to expand...

Have you ever noticed the histogram getting all messed up with gaps etc after editing? That doesn't happen in 16bit.
 
sk66 said:
Does elements have smart objects? If you convert the image/layer to a smart object in 16 bit prior to switching to 8bit for additional functions you can then go back and edit the smart object and it will still be in 16bit.

It can make a huge difference....
Click to expand...

Surely if you move to 8bit and return to 16bit you lose data in compression to do so?

I'm not even sure what smart objects are.

sk66 said:
Have you ever noticed the histogram getting all messed up with gaps etc after editing? That doesn't happen in 16bit.
Click to expand...

Yes I have, but what does that mean in reality? If that makes sense!
 
Actually there are 2 possible values for each bit, so in a 16bit img we have 2^16 = 65536 possible maximum values per channel, since we're talking colour imgs 2^(16*3) = 281 trillion possible colours, far far beyond what the human visual system is capable of seeing, in fact the human eye cant even see the 16.8 million colours from the 8bit.

As mentioned above, working with 16 bit images gives you flexibility when editing, if you work on an image for a long time eventually you'll run into problems such as banding, when you've lost so much detail that you dont have smooth transitions anymore..

I'm not sure I understood the last question correctly but converting an image to 8 bit and taking it back to 16 bit wont do you any good since you've thrown away most of the data.
 
IgorFB said:
I'm not sure I understood the last question correctly but converting an image to 8 bit and taking it back to 16 bit wont do you any good since you've thrown away most of the data.
Click to expand...

If you convert an image/layer in 16bit to a smart object before converting the document to 8bit then the smart object becomes it's own 16bit file embedded within the 8bit document.
If you select the smart object to edit it directly it will re-open as a separate image in 16bit allowing less destructive editing (in 16bit). And when you close it the 8bit document is updated with the edits.

The gaps in a histogram are "lost data" and are a significant contributor to color issues such as banding.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top