12, 16, 32 bit pixels in Photoshop

A
Posted By
arnstein
Oct 26, 2006
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409
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3
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Closed
I have been playing with the "Merge to HDR" feature of Photoshop CS2
9.0.2. From this feature, I obtained a 32-bit-per-pixel image. Great.
But none of the simple Photoshop tools would work on such an image: curves, levels, most filters, all greyed out in the menus.

I tried converting to a 10 bit image. Still no service. Only when I converted to an 8 bit image could I use the basic Photoshop features.

Is this a limitation of Photoshop, or am I missing something? —
David Arnstein
arnstein+
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32-bit bit pixel

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R
Roberto
Oct 26, 2006
16-bit and 8-bit will work. 16-bit you are still somewhat limited in functions (mostly filters). That is just the nature of the beast 32-bit images at least for consumers is still experimental according to Adobe.

R

"David Arnstein" wrote in message
I have been playing with the "Merge to HDR" feature of Photoshop CS2
9.0.2. From this feature, I obtained a 32-bit-per-pixel image. Great.
But none of the simple Photoshop tools would work on such an image: curves, levels, most filters, all greyed out in the menus.
I tried converting to a 10 bit image. Still no service. Only when I converted to an 8 bit image could I use the basic Photoshop features.
Is this a limitation of Photoshop, or am I missing something? —
David Arnstein
arnstein+
N
nomail
Oct 26, 2006
David Arnstein wrote:

I have been playing with the "Merge to HDR" feature of Photoshop CS2
9.0.2. From this feature, I obtained a 32-bit-per-pixel image. Great.
But none of the simple Photoshop tools would work on such an image: curves, levels, most filters, all greyed out in the menus.
I tried converting to a 10 bit image. Still no service. Only when I converted to an 8 bit image could I use the basic Photoshop features.
Is this a limitation of Photoshop, or am I missing something?

Both. 😉

The idea behind HDR is that HDR is an intermediate format, which will retain a huge dynamic range. When you convert it to 16 bits or 8 bits you can determine how you compress this dynamic range in such a way that it fits within the lower bit depth and still gives a good image. Photoshop has a limited toolset in 16 bits, so if you want to be able to use each and every tool and filter, you have to convert to 8 bits.

—
Johan W. Elzenga johan<<at>>johanfoto.nl Editor / Photographer http://www.johanfoto.nl
R
ronviers
Oct 26, 2006
David Arnstein wrote:
I have been playing with the "Merge to HDR" feature of Photoshop CS2
9.0.2. From this feature, I obtained a 32-bit-per-pixel image. Great.
But none of the simple Photoshop tools would work on such an image: curves, levels, most filters, all greyed out in the menus.
I tried converting to a 10 bit image. Still no service. Only when I converted to an 8 bit image could I use the basic Photoshop features.
Is this a limitation of Photoshop, or am I missing something? —
David Arnstein
arnstein+

Hi David,
I think of HDR as a reference library from which to pull 16 or 8 bit volumes.

Ron

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