About Bit Depth

Bit depth is the number of bits used to describe the primary colors for each pixel in an image. The number of bits determines the number of color variations for red, green, and blue.

When you use a higher bit depth, results may improve in keying, color correction, and other tasks where smooth color gradients are affected. With the increased number of possible colors comes an increased demand for memory and processing time; you should always consider the costs and benefits of increasing bit depth beyond the very capable 8 bits per channel.

Usually, the bit depth of your footage dictates your choice of bit depth in combustion. If film images are digitized and saved as 10 or 16 bit image files, for example, you want to keep all the color information the file format holds. For film work, the entire flow from footage to composite to output can be processed at the higher bit depth.