10-bit color first impressions in Photoshop CS4/5.

[Jay Sheinfield]

It took a bit of time and research, not to mention savings, but I finally have 10-bit color operational under CS5. I am eagerly awaiting 10-bit support on additional ADOBE software.ie Lightroom 3.

Improvement is most noticeable in shadow detail, light and color. This is consistent with what I have read. The investment in video card and monitor is considerable to get this moderate benefit.

There is a spin-off benefit, that I wasn't expecting..........Photoshop and specially Nikon Capture NX2 runs faster than I've ever experienced. NX2 renders a 10-15 step (layer) .nef file in seconds............All this, thanks to the upgraded video card, that I needed to buy to support 10 bit color. The ATI firepro 8800, now discounted, but still very expensive, has cut my work flow time considerably. NX2 now runs like it is on steroids. Whether all this is worth the investment, only time will tell, but the early benefits look encouraging.

Whoops, I probably should have posted this to the Digital Photography Workflow forum.............can one of the moderators move this for me......thanks

[Stuart Hill]

Hi Jay,

What are the benefits of working with 10bit colour over 16bit colour?

kind regards.
Stu.

[Doug Brown]

He's talking about monitor color depth Stuart. Most normal monitors don't exceed 8 bits. A 10-bit monitor can display 64x as many colors as an 8-bit monitor. I don't think there are any 16-bit monitors at even the prosumer level. Here's a link (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071213172842AAThMWr) on 10-bit monitors.

The image files that we work with in Photoshop are typically 16 bit, but those extra bits only come into play during printing.

[Jay Sheinfield]

Doug,

Thanks for fielding the question. There is another advantge to some of the new 10-bit monitors, that being hardware calibration. "Hardware calibration means color settings are adjusted inside the monitor so there is no displayable loss of tonalities. This produces more predictable results and ensures color display is much more uniform ". (quote from the Eizo site). Most 8-bit color calibration takes place in the video card rather than the monitor and has some limitations............a quick trip to the Eizo site will explain better than I can............

[Desmond Chan]

He's talking about monitor color depth Stuart. Most normal monitors don't exceed 8 bits. A 10-bit monitor can display 64x as many colors as an 8-bit monitor. I don't think there are any 16-bit monitors at even the prosumer level. Here's a link (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071213172842AAThMWr) on 10-bit monitors.

The image files that we work with in Photoshop are typically 16 bit, but those extra bits only come into play during printing.

So, a 10-bit monitor helps in editing photographs for printing?

[Jay Sheinfield]

Desmond,

I am already over my head in the technical aspects of 8-bit vs 10-bit monitors. I'll do the best I can to answer the question, hopefully there are others who can chime in.

Basically yes, the idea being that what you see on the screen is what you will see in print. Both in color accuracy and tonality. Regarding tonality, and, in my very limited experience, some images show observable banding on my previous 8-bit monitor. For example with an image partially in light and in shadows, some types of editing would result in noticeable banding of the shadow tones on the monitor, but not in print. As I understand it, it has to do 8-bit or 256 levels of intensity (shades) of a color channel vs 10-bit or 1024 shades. Most noticeable in a color gradient where the more the shades (1024 vs 256) the smoother the transition from one shade to the adjacent shade, or less visible banding.

The other value is in the accuracy of the color itself, and this has to do with LUT's (look up tables) gamuts and what all. Basically, these monitors have higher precision LUT's (12-14 bit) so they can assign a more accurate color from the pallet.........I know even less about this. But from what I have read, the ability for a monitor to display 10-bit color, if calibrated correctly, should get you pretty much accurate color between monitor and printer, I assume also with correct print profiles. This would have great benefit in "proofing" images, for example, before printing. Note, that these monitors have a mode setting specific to print. I have yet to test this out.

As I have further read, regarding Photoshop, which is now capable of outputting 10 bit (rather than 8-bit) encoding to the display, color tonality is more even and transitions from one color to the next are more smooth. My experience so far, mostly in shadow detail and color improvement, backs this up.

I admit to be a very early adopter, and the advantages of 10-bit color LCD's should be for color critical applications, a bit beyond my skill level.........but, the technology is intriguing.