Test exterior autumn house

[sjmoir]

I save as half float (16bit) EXR, reasonable file size and plenty of adjustment in PS as long as it's in the ball park when rendering without frame buffer adjustments. PS thinks they're 32bit, I correct this straight away which lets you use all the tools. I have an action to do this which converts it to a smart layer at the same time, which I then apply Camera Raw to (I also love the free Nik Collection filters). I can open and drop any updates into this smart layer without affecting any adjustments or layers above. Bonus, Camera Raw doesn't apply any whacky adjustments by default on 16bit images.

Edit: Bobby, your workstation is a beast, PS Camera Raw should not be choking!

[dans]

I save as half float (16bit) EXR, reasonable file size and plenty of adjustment in PS as long as it's in the ball park when rendering without frame buffer adjustments. PS thinks they're 32bit, I correct this straight away which lets you use all the tools

Half float (16bit) EXR channels hold high dynamic range data, just saved with less precision. So to keep that HDR data you would stay in 32-bit. So you are not "correcting" this, you are converting to a low dynamic range image when switching to 16-bit mode in Photoshop. Which like all things in post is fine if it works for you.

Daniel

[sjmoir]

Thanks Daniel, your first comment got me thinking and you're (of course) quite right, it's making no difference in Camera Raw. I guess I'm just not making big enough adjustments to notice, could just go back to 8bit TGAs! I remember finding gradient overlays etc a bit smoother in 16bit mode which is why I started.

[sjmoir]

I think I just do stuff on autopilot these days. Looking at my current file, I've adjusted exposure and highlight burn in the VFB, using Camera Raw mainly for temperature / saturation / clarity etc. and only very small adjustments in exposure / highlights, which would account for me not noticing anything.