3 what is the difference between an 8 bit and a 16 bit image

The only difference between them is that the top one is an 8-bit image and the bottom is a bit image. Let's try the exact same edit with the Levels adjustment. Now, I realize this edit is a bit extreme and isn't likely to be something you'd actually do to your images. But it does give us a clear example of how much damage we can do to our images when editing 8-bit versions of them compared with how little, if any, damage we do with bit versions. Again, I'm doing this for both the 8-bit and bit versions of the image:.

Here's how the 8-bit version of the image looks after forcing its entire tonal range into a small space where you'd normally find just the mid-tone information:. Once again, the two versions are identical.

There's no visible advantage with the bit version over the 8-bit version. Now let's bring up Levels again and stretch the tonal information back to the way it was originally, with the darkest areas becoming pure black and the lightest areas becoming pure white:. Now let's see if there's any advantage with the bit version over the 8-bit version.

First, the 8-bit version:. Just as with the gradient, the 8-bit version of the image suffered quite a lot of damage thanks to the edit. There is very noticeable color banding, especially in the water, which now looks more like some sort of painting effect than a full color photo. You can also see banding in the beach ball itself, and in the sand at the bottom of the photo. At this point, the 8-bit image is of little use to us anymore. Once again, just as with the gradient, the bit version survived without a scratch!

It looks every bit as good as it did before the edit, while the 8-bit version lost a ton of detail. And it's all because the bit version has such a tremendous amount of possible colors available at its disposal. Even after an edit as drastic as the one I performed, I was unable to make the slightest dent in the quality of the image thanks to it being in bit mode. So how can you take advantage of bit with your own photos? Shoot your photos in the raw format instead of JPEG whenever possible assuming of course that your camera supports raw , then open and edit them in Photoshop as bit images.

Keep in mind though that when working with bit images, the file size is much larger than you'd have with an 8-bit image, and if you have an older computer, it could have an impact on how long it takes you to work in Photoshop.

Also, although each new version of Photoshop gets better and better with this, not every filter and adjustment is available to us in bit mode, but most of the commonly used ones are. Try to work in bit mode for as long as possible though before switching to 8-bit mode.

Also, make sure you switch to 8-bit mode before printing the image, or even better, save your bit version as a Photoshop. PSD file and then save a separate 8-bit version for printing. Dragging the bottom black and white "Output" sliders in towards the center in the Levels dialog box.

Dragging the "Input" black and white sliders in towards the center to stretch the gradients back to pure black on the left and pure white on the right. Dragging the "Output" black and white sliders in towards the center in the Levels dialog box. Dragging the "Input" black and white sliders in towards the center in the Levels dialog box to force the darkest areas of the image to black and the lightest points to white.

Get all of our Photoshop tutorials as PDFs! Download them today! Adam owns a production company that specializes in corporate marketing and brand strategy. His videos have collectively hit over a quarter billion views. Submit A Story. Share Tweet Pinterest. What does bit depth even mean? And does it matter? Tones are created by adding white or black to a color. Hence, when we refer to negative values, we are talking about the number of available negative variations in a color.

The difference between 8 and bit images is the number of tones available for a color. A bit image is made up of more tones than an 8-bit image. The available negative amount will be calculated from 2 up to the exponent of the bit.

If you want to calculate the tonal range for a bit image, do it from 2 to an exponent of Hence they increase the number of available tones exponentially. That is, there are tones available for cyan; tones available for magenta; tones available for yellow and available tones for black for CMYK color profile. If you are using an RGB color profile, the image will contain tonal variations for each red, green, and blue.

Slight banding can occur when attempting to print an 8-bit image with a gradient. But for the most part, there should be very little to no banding in your printed images that do not include gradients. One of the advantages of working with 8-bit images is they are typically smaller in file size.