Curvemeister Forum

I have only just noticed that during the setting up of my new computer a while ago my images are all now 16 bits. it tends to slow some stuff down and I presume is taking up space.
So..
it there any advantage?
can i reduce the bit size of already edited images with no loss of quality

thanks
Julie

Once again Julie it is a qualified "it depends" Try it out on some images and see if the 8 bit version loses anything. Most people will say it does. I would say it depends.

Look for an uneven sky and gradients across smooth surfaces.

Is storage an issue? if so you could add another drive to the PC. Storage is relatively cheap.

I think it is more important if you are using a color space like ProRGB.
Other opinions are certainly welcome here.
Greg

Thanks. I think I will leave it at 16 bit. Like you say storage is cheap. I also have a multitude of images that really should just be deleted.

It slows down some plug ins but that really could be used as an opportunity to stand and stretch.

Julie

For what its worth: I edit my images in 16bit and only the last steps, for our club where you have to have the images in 1920 x 1080 format and limited to maximum of 1.2Mb jpeg, will I convert to sRGB and 8bit. When converting to 8bit right at the end doesn't really have an effect on the quality as far as I can see

My 2 cents.
After tweaking my 14 bit out of camera raw files in ACR, I open images in PS and immediately convert them to 8 bits (unless I'm using Piccure+, in which case I convert them after). I've never experienced any problems with image quality/artifacts. Eight bits not only speeds up processing, but several PS filters are only available for 8 bit images.
For discussion: monitors can't display 16 bit images, or, most, even 10 bit images. So, what are we seeing when working in 16 bits?

You are seeing PS's best guess and estimate.

Greg