I was just wondering how many of you work in 16 bit before converting back down to 8 bit for output (web jpeg or printing)
The reason I ask is that someone has recently brought it up on another forum and was strongly advocating working in 16 bit though I've had my doubts.
I don't disagree that issues like banding and colour handling are better in 16 bit. In fact, I used to work in 16 bit all the time (as indicated by my out dated signature)
My main reservation is that in the past, I distantly recall that on the final conversion, it can (though rarely) introduce some artefacts.
As a result, I changed my workflow a long time ago to just work in 8 bit from the start so that I'll know what I'll be dealing with at the end rather than having to fix a 'nasty surprise' on the final conversion.
Is my memory playing tricks on me? Does a final conversion from 16bit to 8bit do anything to the image that's untoward (eg introduce banding) ?
I appreciate the theory behind the 16bit argument but I wasn't strongly convinced to keep doing it from past experiences since the final file will always be an 8 bit one.
Love to hear your experiences regarding this topic ?