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8 bit to16 bit?

PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2005 7:25 pm
by Dug
How do I change the settings to record in 16bit on the D70 or D70s?

It is set on 8 bit at the moment.

cheers doug

PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2005 7:28 pm
by sheepie
"Unless I'm very much mistaken"... :roll:

If you're shooting in jpg then it will be 8 bit regardless.

If you shoot in NEF, then these are 12 bit ('lossless' 16 bit).

PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2005 7:31 pm
by big pix
sheepie wrote:"Unless I'm very much mistaken"... :roll:

If you're shooting in jpg then it will be 8 bit regardless.

If you shoot in NEF, then these are 12 bit ('lossless' 16 bit).


and set your Adobe RAW converter in BRIDGE to process as 16 bit.......

PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2005 7:34 pm
by Dug
I shoot Raw / NEF but they open in Photoshop as 8 bit????

am I doing something wrong?

PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2005 7:40 pm
by big pix
Dug wrote:I shoot Raw / NEF but they open in Photoshop as 8 bit????

am I doing something wrong?


in raw conversion.......'show workflow options'...... tick this......'Depth'...... change to 16 bits/channel.........

this is for PSCS2....... should be similar for PSCS.......all on bottom left side

PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2005 7:44 pm
by Dug
Thanks for that :D

cheers doug

PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2005 8:01 pm
by johnd
BP, this is probably a dumb question, but what do you get in 16 bit that you don't get in 8 bit. I just checked the depth setting in raw conversion and it was set to 8 bit. I've changed it to 16 bit and now the file size is doubled in PS CS2. Have I just got a whole lot more pixel detail or something, or just bigger files. (I've got a feeling this IS a dumb question).

PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2005 8:07 pm
by Aussie Dave
johnd wrote:BP, this is probably a dumb question, but what do you get in 16 bit that you don't get in 8 bit. I just checked the depth setting in raw conversion and it was set to 8 bit. I've changed it to 16 bit and now the file size is doubled in PS CS2. Have I just got a whole lot more pixel detail or something, or just bigger files. (I've got a feeling this IS a dumb question).


perhaps THIS will be of assistance ?!?

PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2005 8:18 pm
by Oneputt
Dug when you open the image in PS there is a setting in the bottom left hand corner which you just change to 16 bit. Simple really :wink:

PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2005 8:28 pm
by MattC
John,

The difference is 2^8 (256) levels (per channel) for 8 bit vs 2^16 (60 something thousand) levels for 16 bit. The difference is huge. Some of it is a little academic as the D70 captures 12 bit and compresses that to 9 bit in raw mode.

I think I got that right.

Cheers

PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2005 8:51 pm
by Oneputt
Matt - I have forgotten about the D70.

When ACR opens the D2X images changing from 8 to 16 or vice versa is really that simple.

PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2005 8:54 pm
by Antsl
16-Bit is useful for working in if you anticipate you are going to make some real drastic changes to the overall contrast / levels / curves of an image.

Imagine you have converted a landscape image to black and white and now you want to increase the contrast in a rather flat looking sky to get more detail out of the clouds. In 8-bit mode if you were to really compress the levels within the sky then chances are you are going to be reducing the 256 shades of grey in that area to 30 or 40 shades of grey and before you know it you will see solid steps within the different greys. Now try the same trick in 16-bit, you will discover even if you compress the tones done to 20 percent of their original you will still have plenty of information left over - 20 percent of 65500 odd tones still leaves about 13,000 shades of grey to play with.

16-bit is useful for the images that you knw you want to play with, otherwise work in 8-bit

PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2005 9:34 pm
by johnd
Aussie Dave wrote:
johnd wrote:BP, this is probably a dumb question, but what do you get in 16 bit that you don't get in 8 bit. I just checked the depth setting in raw conversion and it was set to 8 bit. I've changed it to 16 bit and now the file size is doubled in PS CS2. Have I just got a whole lot more pixel detail or something, or just bigger files. (I've got a feeling this IS a dumb question).


perhaps THIS will be of assistance ?!?


Thanks Dave for the link. I've had a good read. I must say that when I have been doing some heavy PPing especially on sky in the past I've seen some banding type of effects. I bet this is 8 bit coming thru. I'll play round with the same images in 16 bit to see the difference. I shoot everything in raw, so it's easy enough to go back and play with 16 bit (or should I say 12 bit, it's a D70 after all). Thanks again and to the rest of you for your comments.

PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2005 9:54 pm
by Dug
DAM! I thought this was a simple question :D :shock:

thanks for the info

cheers doug