Better Available Light Digital Photography : How to Make the Most of Your Night and Low-light Shots

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ain’t gonna work that fast with 16-bit fi les, so you’re gonna need

a state-of-the-art fast microprocessor chip in that computer, BIG

hard drives, and recordable DVD drives to store these puppies.

At some point, you will need to do something you may not be

able to accomplish at 16 bits. When that happens, you should

save a copy and convert it into 8-bit mode, retaining your origi-

nal 16-bit fi le in the project folder.

Here’s what the Filter menu
looked like in Adobe Photoshop
when a 16-bit fi le was opened. As
you can see, many of Adobe’s
plug-ins—as well as most third-
party compatible plug-ins—are
not available.