8 bit depth?????

[jann1033]

hope i got that right but i was reading something (about color to b&w conversion i think) and it said about setting your camera to 16 bit depth? i think this was to give more of a gray scale to work with( sorry my brain is slower today) i can find that on my eiditing software ( 16 and 32)but not on the actual camera and it is 8 bit in the properties of the photos...anyone know if you can set it on the rebel xt and is this something i want to do? i can't find it in the manual so guessing if it's changable, maybe not a normal routine thing to do?

 

[boBQuincy]

JPG is 8 bits by definition (8 bits each in r,g,b, sometimes called 24 bit). Our cameras capture images in 12 bits. RAW keeps the full 12 bits, JPG converts the 12 bits to 8.

Computers are set up for multiples of 8 so they use 16 bits for the 12 bit images. Afaik the upper 4 bits are filled with zeros until we do some editing that rolls over into the 13th bit (I may have the 13th bit part incorrect but it's probably something like that).

When we open a RAW image in PS it gives the option of keeping it as 8 or 16 bits. I keep the image as 16 bits until I need a JPG, then we must switch to 8 bits (PS won't allow saving a 16 bit image as JPG).

For B&W it is well worth using 16 bits, especially since tonal range is everything. I think it is worth it for color also but that opens up the RAW/JPG wars again!

 

[jann1033]

JPG is 8 bits by definition (8 bits each in r,g,b, sometimes called 24 bit). Our cameras capture images in 12 bits. RAW keeps the full 12 bits, JPG converts the 12 bits to 8.

Computers are set up for multiples of 8 so they use 16 bits for the 12 bit images. Afaik the upper 4 bits are filled with zeros until we do some editing that rolls over into the 13th bit (I may have the 13th bit part incorrect but it's probably something like that).

When we open a RAW image in PS it gives the option of keeping it as 8 or 16 bits. I keep the image as 16 bits until I need a JPG, then we must switch to 8 bits (PS won't allow saving a 16 bit image as JPG).

For B&W it is well worth using 16 bits, especially since tonal range is everything. I think it is worth it for color also but that opens up the RAW/JPG wars again!

thanks.. so raw it is...now if you would scroll on down to the software question so i can edit the thing

 

[boBQuincy]

thanks.. so raw it is...now if you would scroll on down to the software question so i can edit the thing

Sorry, can't help you with the software. I pretty much use only Photoshop (CS2) for RAW conversion. I am in school so I got the educational price, that helps a lot.
I have BreezeBrowser and occasionally use that at work, it's not bad for the money.

When I bought my first Canon dSLR and saw the #$%^&* software, that was the last time I used Canon's software. I understand it is much better now but PS is so good there's not much incentive to change.

Good luck!

 

[ndelaware]

Jann, you can edit Canon RAW files (.CR2) in Photoshop Elelments 5 or 4 for that matter.