Converting a 16 bit image to 8 bit image.

Tipmyhattou

SmugMug Heroes,
When i make changes to an image that i have already punlished through Lightroom 4 to my SmugMug gallery, There are time when i have to take it back into Photoshop, say to remove text from the image. i get a message that it has to be converted to an 8 bit image from a 16 bit image. What is the difference in the two depths? Does changing from 16 bit to 8 bit downgrade the image quality as far as printing the image?

Thankyou,
Tipmuhattou:dunno

Tysax

Hi,

The difference is the number of colors in the image file. A 8 bit image has 256 shades of red, 256 shades of green and 256 shades of blue. That equals 16.7 million colors. A 16 bit image has 65,536 shades of red, 65,536 shades of green and 65,536 shades of blue. The file size is much, much larger, and the image has far more depth. In some cases like gradient colors, you may see a difference between the two bit modes. Take a look at the following link that explains the difference in detail:
http://www.photoshopessentials.com/essentials/16-bit/

If you have any additional questions, feel free to email us at help@smugmug.com

Tipmyhattou

Solution - 8 bit verses 16 bit mode.

Tipmyhattou wrote: »

Tysax,

Thank you That certainly exlains the difference in the two. I am always working in 16bit mode with high res images and when i have to take my image from Lightroom 4 to Photoshop 11 to remove copyright text, it wants me to convert to the 8 bit mode. I didn't understand why. I recently started using DigiMarc and so i had to remove my copywright text layer off, which is easy enough, if it is not flattened. If it is flattened, you have to use the spot healing brush to remove the text, which would want me to change over to 8 bit depth. I appreciate the education. I'm always learning about this stuff from great Smuggers like you.

Thanks again,
Tip