Switching between 8 or 16 bit...

[John Berry]

How does switching back and forth between these two modes affect your image?

I'm curious if you work in 16 bit mode, save the adjusted file in 8 bit to save space, then come back to it for editing another day and switch back to 16 bit mode before editing what happens to the photo, does that affect the overall quality?

Thanks

Make a duplicate, convert it to 8 bit. Make a selection of what you want to work on it, and drop the selection back on your 16 bit image and make your adjustment.

[trink408]

Hey trink408 - I just gotta ask: Are both of your "avatar" images, of you ?

If so, then which one is more recent ?

Amazing what an apple a day can do for you huh...

The one in my signature is me from a couple years ago, the other one makes me laugh.

[trink408]

I can see I have a lot to learn about photoshop...

I ran into a new frustration last night trying to print some of my images, I've mostly been just creating images for viewing on a monitor, not having to worry about the image size and if it will fit on any of the available paper output options... Struggling trying to crop them to fit standard formats.

[Joanna Carter]

I ran into a new frustration last night trying to print some of my images, I've mostly been just creating images for viewing on a monitor, not having to worry about the image size and if it will fit on any of the available paper output options... Struggling trying to crop them to fit standard formats.

Assuming you are using the CS... versions of Photoshop : select the Crop tool and enter the proportions you desire into the options palette; marquee the desired area and crop.
Then you need to go into the Image Size dialog and reset the resolution of the image to 240 or 300dpi (without resampling). You should now have an image of the correct proportions which you can then resize, either using Photoshop or, better still, Genuine Fractals.

[trink408]

Assuming you are using the CS... versions of Photoshop : select the Crop tool and enter the proportions you desire into the options palette; marquee the desired area and crop.
Then you need to go into the Image Size dialog and reset the resolution of the image to 240 or 300dpi (without resampling). You should now have an image of the correct proportions which you can then resize, either using Photoshop or, better still, Genuine Fractals.

Thanks.

I am using cs, what do you set the resolution at when doing the crop, or do you leave that field blank? Why reset resolution to 240 or 300?

Part of my problem is I can't fit what I want to include in my image into the area cropped to an 8x10 or 11x14...

[Joanna Carter]

I am using cs, what do you set the resolution at when doing the crop, or do you leave that field blank?

I don't set the resolution at all, I just set the dimensions (it doesn't matter whether you use inches or cm, all you want is the final proportions.

Why reset resolution to 240 or 300?

Assuming the image is originally set to 240 or 300, using the crop tool without setting the resolution will resize the image without resampling, thus giving you an image of the correct size but at a silly resolution; I use 4cm x 5cm and that can give me a cropped image with a resolution of a couple of thousands - this is why you have to resize to 240 or 300 without resampling, to get back the original resolution.
It is very important that you don't resample at the same time as cropping, especially if, like me, you use the better option of using Genuine Fractals for resizing.

Part of my problem is I can't fit what I want to include in my image into the area cropped to an 8x10 or 11x14...

Don't think of the crop as being a real-world measurement, it is not so much cropping as reproportioning to a given ratio; cropping to 4cm x 5cm will give the same results as cropping to 8" x 10" - as long as you don't resample and that you reset the resolution afterwards.

Does that make sense yet ? If not, I could always do some screen shots.

[trink408]

Thanks for all the info. I will work on some prints tonight and see what I come up with...

Kevin