ChApter 2. digitAl workFlow
46 For more on textbooks in digitAl photogrAphy, visit http://www.photoCourse.Com
http://www.photocourse.com/itext/pixels/pixels.pdf
in an image is referred to its color depth and is determined by the number of
bits used to store each of a pixel’s three colors—red, green, and blue. JPEG
images use 8 bits per color. To calculate how many different colors can be
captured or displayed, you raise the number 2 to the power of the number of
bits used to store them. For example:- For each color 8-bits captures 256 levels of brightness because 2^8 = 256.
- For all three colors combined there are 24 bits (8 per color times 3), and the
total number of colors is over 16 million (2^24 = 16,777,216).
RAW images have greater color depth and that gives you smoother grada-
tions of tones and more colors to work with as you make adjustments. How
many more is astronomical. RAW images are initially captured by the sensor
in an analog form and an analog to digital converter converts them to 10, 12
or 14 bits per color which is increased to 16 bits per color for RAW images
and reduced to 8 bits for JPEG files. - For each color 16-bits captures 65,536 levels of a brightness (2^16 = 65,536).
- For all three colors there are 48 bits (16 per color times 3), and the total
number of colors is over 281 trillion (2^48 = 281,474,976,710,656).
These extra colors are not actually used by display screens, printers, or most
other devices, but are there to give really fine gradations when editing and
adjusting the images into their final form.
Here’s a table that summarizes these color depth facts.
Name Bits perColor Depth
Total
bitsFormula
of colorsNumber of colorsJpEG 8 24 224 16,777,216
raW 16 48 248 281,474,976,710,656ChooSing A FormAt
When choosing between JPEG and RAW formats, here are some things to
consider about each format. Because you can’t easily add pixels and retain
image quality, or remove the effects of compression after the fact, it’s usually
best to use the largest available JPEG size and the least compression avail-
able. If you have to reduce either, you can do so later using a photo-editing
program. If you shoot the image at a lower quality setting, you can never
really improve it much or get a large, sharp print if you want one. The only
problem with this approach is that higher quality images have larger file
sizes.
RAW images are always captured at the largest file size, and any compression
used is lossless. Images in this format used to require an extra processing
step but since the latest programs such as Aperture and Lightroom were de-
signed from the ground up after RAW formats were introduced they handle
them as easily as they handle JPEGs.
There are a number of advantages to using the RAW format:- RAW lets you decide on most camera settings after you’ve taken the picture,
not before. For example, when you shoot a JPEG image under fluorescent
lights, the camera adjusts the image to remove the yellow-green tint. Any
changes you make later are on top of this initial change. If you shoot the im-
age in RAW format, the camera just captures the images as is and you decide
what white balance setting to use later. You can even create different versions
of an image, each with its own white balance.
TiP
When discussing
color depth, photog-
raphers refer just to
the bits per color or
the total number of
bits, and both forms
of reference mean
the same thing. For
example, if you say
“8 bit images” or “24
bit images,” people
will know you are
talking about JpEGs
and not raW images.Click for a PDF
extension on pixels and
read Part 4 on color
depth and file sizes.