NEFs in PS CS2: Convert to 8 Bit Before Making TIFs???

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Posted By
xtx99
Feb 6, 2006
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194
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1
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I’m currently editing my D70’s NEFs in Photoshop CS2 (including downsizing & adding canvas), saving as 16 Bit TIFs and printing on my dye sub printer. My last step before saving is sharpening. I’m thinking that since my dye-sub printer only prints in 8 Bits, that I might as well save the TIFs first as 8 Bit files since it will have absolutely no effect on quality (and save space which really isn’t an issue for me). Does my argument make sense? If it does, at what point should I convert to 8 Bit (immediately upon opening NEF, before resizing, after sharpening??? It would seem that after sharpening would make sense since 16 Bit TIFs are converted to 8 Bit during printing anyway, right? Thanks for suggestions.
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CJ
C J Southern
Feb 7, 2006
wrote in message
I’m currently editing my D70’s NEFs in Photoshop CS2 (including downsizing & adding canvas), saving as 16 Bit TIFs and printing on my dye sub printer. My last step before saving is sharpening. I’m thinking that since my dye-sub printer only prints in 8 Bits, that I might as well save the TIFs first as 8 Bit files since it will have absolutely no effect on quality (and save space which really isn’t an issue for me). Does my argument make sense? If it does, at what point should I convert to 8 Bit (immediately upon opening NEF, before resizing, after sharpening??? It would seem that after sharpening would make sense since 16 Bit TIFs are converted to 8 Bit during printing anyway, right? Thanks for suggestions.

Hi,

It’s safest to do all of your editing in 16 bit – and if you’re using a wide-gamut colorspace profile such as ProPhoto RGB or LAB then it’s damn near mandatory, unless you want to risk ending up with visible banding/posterisation etc (the wider the range of colours that the colorspace can represent, the larger the steps between each level – so on a really big colorspace 256 levels just ain’t gunna cut the mustard).

It’s "safe" to convert to 8 bit when you’ve finished your editing – but if you save in this format then you’re really on the back foot if you have to make any significant edits (converting an 8 bit image to a 16 bit doesn’t buy you any more headroom – it’s the 12 bits from your camera that you really need to save).

Not sure what you mean by "including downsizing" – you don’t want to be downsizing any image from a camera – if you do, and you want to enlarge it later, you’re screwed.

So short answer to your question is "as late as possible" – unless you need to use filters that only work in 8 bit mode.

Let me know if you need any of this expanded.

Cheers,

Colin

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