From the course: Digital Media Foundations

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What's the difference between 8 bit, 10 bit, 12 bit, and beyond?

What's the difference between 8 bit, 10 bit, 12 bit, and beyond?

From the course: Digital Media Foundations

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What's the difference between 8 bit, 10 bit, 12 bit, and beyond?

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- [Voiceover] Every pixel has color values based on bits. The more bits you use for each pixel, the more steps between completely off and completely on. If we were just talking about a black and white image, we could represent each pixel with one number, a monochromatic single channel, which would indicate brightness. Because we usually work with color, we have bits assigned to each color value, so there are three numbers in total. A eight bit pixel can go from completely off to completely on in 255 steps. That's 256 possible steps, with the first one being zero. Because each bit doubles the range of possible numbers, if you work with ten bit images, you get double and double again the number of steps. So ten bit pixels go from zero to 1023. 1023, on a ten bit pixel, is no more than 255 on an eight bit pixel. It's the same maximum amount of brightness or color, but the number of steps taken to get there is much, much more, creating many more potential colors, and giving you a more…

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