Ashley Karyl
03-14-2005, 09:01 AM
A while back I created an action which involves upsizing before pasting to a new 16 Bit document and running PK Sharpener's super grain action. This all worked predictably well.
Recently I found myself with a series of 8 Bit images which needed a boost in contrast and this action enabled me to maintain a smoother histogram than simply adding contrast. Very simply put if I ran an Auto Contrast command on the file as it was I ended up with a very fragmented histogram which is typical of 8 Bit images but after running the grain action and flattening the file, if I ran the same Auto Contrast the resulting image had a smooth histogram. This is not owed to simply pasting the file to a 16Bit document since I have proven this makes no difference, but the actual PK action seems to make changes to the file which enabled it to maintain a smooth histogram with no breaks. I know that its normal to add a little noise at times to a file to avoid some visible banding in print so I am assuming this is the same result, but its a useful trick when you need to maintain a smooth histogram because in many cases the noise won't be at all objectionable in print.
Recently I found myself with a series of 8 Bit images which needed a boost in contrast and this action enabled me to maintain a smoother histogram than simply adding contrast. Very simply put if I ran an Auto Contrast command on the file as it was I ended up with a very fragmented histogram which is typical of 8 Bit images but after running the grain action and flattening the file, if I ran the same Auto Contrast the resulting image had a smooth histogram. This is not owed to simply pasting the file to a 16Bit document since I have proven this makes no difference, but the actual PK action seems to make changes to the file which enabled it to maintain a smooth histogram with no breaks. I know that its normal to add a little noise at times to a file to avoid some visible banding in print so I am assuming this is the same result, but its a useful trick when you need to maintain a smooth histogram because in many cases the noise won't be at all objectionable in print.