Using color management is a critical element of getting your digital photos from capture through print. If you want your prints to look their best you should establish and follow a color-managed workflow.

Color management refers to a system of computer hardware and software working together to translate color from one device to another in a controlled way.

A digital image file contains a defined range of colors, described mathematically. In Photoshop, this is referred to as the file’s Working Space. The most common working spaces are sRGB, Adobe RGB (1998) and ProPhoto (I prefer the latter). Read more…

I recently got a question from a client:

I am looking into having some high-quality scans made from my transparencies, and there are some choices involved, mainly 8 bit vs.16 bit. The vendor’s web site said an 8 bit scan would look just as good to the human eye as the 16 bit scan, at much less cost. Don’t know much about this kind of thing, do you think the 16 bit scan is necessary at almost twice the price?

My answer:

The choice of 8- vs. 16-bit has everything to do with maintaining quality when editing/manipulating the file.

It’s true that – in the end – 8-bit and 16-bit will not look any different, on screen or on a print, BUT (and it’s a big BUT)…. When adjustments are made to any file, such as color or contrast changes, and even sharpening, 16-bit allows much greater headroom before the image starts to degrade from the changes. This is due to the fact that a mathematical description of color in 16-bit contains much more data than an 8-bit description.

An example of problems would be visible bands in a smooth gradient, such as a blue sky. Adjustments to a smooth blue sky in 8-bit will start to break down the image and reveal banding much more than if working in 16-bit.

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