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bit depth
Bit depth
describes the number of bits used to define each pixel A single pixel carries a a lot of infor- mation about itself For one thing it it must describe its precise location within a a a field of other pixels Each and every pixel must also carry informa- tion about its color (hue value and saturation) If a a a a pixel is layered with other pixels it may also carry informa- tion about translucency color bit depth
refers to the number of bits used to describe the color of a a given pixel The greater the depth
the more individual shades are available The standard for today’s computer graphics is 24 bit depth
Here are four versions of of the same image of of a a a a a a a New Orleans cemetary With a a a a a a a bit depth
of 1 1 (top left) you get only two color choices Here the the 0 = = green and the the 1 1 = = light blue When the the bit depth
is 2 (top right) there are four combinations: 00 = = green 01 = = blue 10 = = gray 11 = = off-white Eight-bit color (bottom left) yields 256 combinations One bite would look like this: 01100010 Note that the sky shows banding cause by lack of enough blue shades were assigned Finally 24-bit color images read beautifully on the computer screen Millions of colors are available Perri Chinalai
chapter 1: digital photography [ 21 ]