So, is 16 bits better than 8 bits?
Or do you think 8 bits is a more practical choice than 16 bits?
Well, that's a conversation to be later jumped upon.
However, I need to show you some shocking demonstrations first.
Have a look at this photo.
So this, my friend, is an 8 bit image.
If you go to Image - Mode, have a look, 8 bits is checked.
Now, we're going to do some extreme curves in it.
Click on the Adjustment layer icon and then choose Curves.
Now, we're going to take the rightmost point down extremely.
Let's choose the output to about 10.
All right.
Let's create one more Curves Adjustment layer.
Click on the Adjustment layer icon and then choose Curves.
Now, I have made it very dark.
Let's bring the brightness back by taking the rightmost point to the left, at the top.
What was the output?
10, right?
So this time, set the input to 10.
What do you see?
Artifacts, right?
Banding, right?
A lot of these problems here and there.
How do you fix that?
Well, if we simply change the mode to 16 Bits, have a look at the magic, get ready for the
magic..
Image - Mode, and then 16 bit.
Well, that turned out to be an epic fail.
Or did it really?
If you zoom in, have a look.
That was actually Photoshop's fault at how it renders images when you zoom it out.
But if you look at it at 66.7 or even 100%, there are no artifacts.
However, if you change it back by going to Image - Mode, and then 8 Bits, see these artifacts
right in there.
Let's go to Image - Mode and change it back to 16 Bits.
All of it is gone.
This example just showed you that when you're working with a lot of curves, when you're
doing a lot of color manipulations or brightness manipulations, if you're working with 8 bits,
it has a way higher tendency to get artifacts and banding than 16 bits.
Now you, my friend, have the liberty to actually merge all of this.
Let's say you applied a lot of Curves.
You can actually merge all of this by selecting all of this, right, and pressing Ctrl or Command
+ E. Now, all of this is merged.
Now, you can change it back to 8 bits.
And all of these will be gone by Image - Mode, and 8 Bits.
See, all of the artifacts are gone even in 8 bits.
But if you had kept the Curves, it could be still there.
So, 16 Bits gives you a lot of range to play with.
Now let's understand why this happens.
When you working with 8 bits, you're just working with 256 tonal variations.
Just 256 for red, 256 for green and 256 for blue if you're working with an RGB image.
If you're working with CMYK, then 256 for each.
Now, where did this number 256 come from?
Look at the bit number.
8 bit, right.
So, 2 to the power 8, which is 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 - eight times, it gives you 256.
Whereas, when you're working with 16 bit, it is 2 to the power 16 which is 65,536.
So my friend, you're playing with 65,536 tonal variations for red, the same number for green
and the same number for blue.
Now the question boils down to what should I use at the end of the day, 8 bits or 16
bits.
Now, this also can be broken down into two parts.
What do you use when you working in Photoshop?
And what do you use when you export the image?
So ideally, when you're working with Photoshop and doing a lot of manipulations in color,
brightness and all of that, I would suggest using 16 bits.
However, when you export it, it's a whole different story.
It depends upon the medium.
So, most mediums, in my opinion, will support 8 bits and will not support or render 16 bit
correctly.
So most of your social media websites, online platforms and even printing options will perfectly
support 8 bits.
And for most cases, and in 99.9% of the cases, I personally export in 8 bits.
So, how do you export it in 8 bits and still not have the artifacts?
Simple.
Do the same thing that we did before.
So, when we had all these Curves, this is still in 16 bit, right?
So if you go to Image - Mode, this is still in 16 BIts.
Let's check.
16 Bits.
Okay.
Now before we convert it to 8 Bits, always make a duplicate of the document.
You always want to have a 16 bit copy.
So, let's bring it out of the tab, right click on it, and then choose Duplicate.
And we can name this 8-Bit.
In this 8 bits duplicate, you will see the artifacts.
That's just because it's not zoomed in properly.
If you zoom in, have a look, all of it is gone.
Now, we need to merge all of this.
So select all of the layers, select the Curves, hold the Ctrl or Command, select all of them,
press Ctrl or Command + E or you can just right click on it and then choose Merge Visible
right in there.
Or you can press Ctrl + Shift + E. That does the same thing.
Okay.
Now once you have merged it, you can go to Image - Mode and 8 Bits, back again.
And then if you zoom in / zoom out, there are no artefacts.
Now you can export it, save it, do whatever you want.
File - Export - Export As, and then choose JPEG, and you get the point.
Now, instead of all of these advantages of 16 bits, there are some areas when you might
have to use 8 bits, even while you're working in Photoshop.
You see, when you have 16 bits active, let's go to Image - Mode, have a look, 16 Bits is
active.. some of the filters will not work.
Let's select the Background image.
And if you go to Filter, have a look, Filter Gallery is grayed out.
There are just little exceptions and of course the bigger file size.
Now it's up to you, what do you want to use.
Personally, while I am working in Photoshop, and I have to do lot of color manipulations
or brightness manipulations, I would work with 16 Bits and export it in 8 Bits.
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Till then, stay tuned and make sure that you keep creating.