Oct 15, 2009 1:14 AM
Photoshop 10bit support
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Hi Mylenium, thanks for your comment!
What would you require that functionality for?
Like I said, I'm building a new system with Windows 7 (supports 30-bit and 48-bit color depths). The monitor I plan to buy also supports 10bpc via Displayport. Now I have to choose between a regular graphics or a more expensive ATI Firepro. If PS and/or the current file formats don't support 10bpc OUTPUT yet (and won't in the near future), I do not need to buy the expensive graphics processor and will probably buy another monitor
There was a plugin from Matrox that enabled 10bpc in PS some years ago. Like I said there is already a 16 bit per channel mode in PS I wondered about Photoshop's ability to display a higher bit depth. For years PS has been able to create HDR images although noone can actually see the tonal values.
That leaves the question: Why would one need to buy a 10bpc monitor? Why do workstation graphics support 10bpc? Are they only useful in CAD, animations, video and rendering programs?
It seems we were talking at crossed purposes (thanks Zeno Bokor
), so is your comment still valid? -
It would not make much sense to have 10-12-14 bit functionality for monitor purposes if the other output devices didn't. Banding for instance. How much aggravation would be encountered to see banding in a print which isn't present on screen? I would want to be forewarned.
It would be interesting if klsteven could print examples of both images displaying banding in 8 bit but certain images in 10 bit did not band, on a 16 bit printer. I believe canon has 16 bit printers.
Banding is my #1 concern these days. Agressive moves with Shadow/Highlight followed by agressive moves in Black and White produce serious banding (as well as other noise components, but the banding is a deal breaker). I could, of course, test it myself and see if the 16 bit file which shows banding on screen and in print shows on the 16 bit printer. Probably will.
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Well, I wouldn't call it a mistake!
I've explored it sufficiently that I have tentatively ruled out equipment problems, so it comes down to limits of processes.
I first encountered it years ago with a scanned image of a mountain reflected in a mirrored surface of still water. The banding in the sky's reflection blew me away.
It's at least one of my legacy images that cannot be adequately handled in digital form. Curiously, returning to that site at the appropriate time with a digital camera did not show banding until I made the conversions. Then it was the sky that banded!
I have some workarounds but they do not always work.
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emaini, here's how I understand it:
An 8 bit monitor can display a certain number of steps between colours. Until a few years ago most monitors were only able to display the small sRGB colour-space. Depending on how good your monitor is you may or may not see colour-banding with those. But when you have a wide gamut 8bit monitor, the steps between colours stay the same, but get spread out over the wider gamut. The spaces get larger (the transitions between colours get rougher) and banding/tone seperation is more likely to appear. With a higher bit display you increase the number of steps and get rid of banding.
In other words: the „saturation“ or intensity of the colours stays the same, because it's bound to your monitor's gamut, but with 10 bit you get more steps (=more colours) in between.
Quick comment regarding ProPhoto: No monitor is able to display such a huge colour-space. You use it only to preserve colours, to make sure you don't „run out of space“ (=lose colours) while working on your pictures. That's also why you use 16-bit in Photoshop. You can't see it directly, but it gives you more steps between tones and thus helps avoid posterisation.
Hope this helped!
Chris, thanks for keeping us up to date, much appreciated!
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Tested it on nVidia Quadro FX1800 + EIZO SX2462W connected via Displayport + Windows 7 Professional 64bit + actual drivers and patches.
I simply draw a grayscale gradient and can clearly see steps /banding/ between each color. When i switch mode of file to 8-bit per color, the picture remains the same
