What is the technique called when you reduce a photo to fewer color levels or colors?
Asked 11/21/2018
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I’m trying to remember the name of a technique used to simplify a photo’s color palette. The effect reduced the complexity of the colors so the image looked limited to fewer tones or fewer effective colors, but it wasn’t simply removing one RGB channel, and it didn’t look like split toning. At the extreme, I imagine it could approach monochrome or duotone. Is there a standard term for this, and is it a common editing technique?
Originally by user68417. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user68417
7y ago
2 Answers
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This may be called decreasing color depth, reducing the bit depth or reducing the number of color planes (for bitmaps, in particular). GIF images, for example, may have only 8-bit (256 level) color, "JPEG 2000 supports any bit depth, such as 16- and 32-bit floating point pixel images." Decreasing color depth, carried to extreme, produces poster-like images, which may show banding where colors had gradations.
To reduce the color depth, try a tool such as the free IrfanView, shown below. In addition, converting to grayscale effectively removes all color information: only a single channel is used.
Originally by user35542. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user35542
7y ago
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The most likely term is posterization (or reducing color depth / bit depth). In practice, this means limiting the number of tonal/color levels so smooth gradations become broader flat areas of color. Push it far enough and the image takes on a graphic, poster-like look, sometimes with visible banding.
Related terms:
- duotone/monotone: usually means converting an image to one or two ink/color channels for a stylized or print-oriented look
- grayscale/monochrome: removes color entirely
So if the effect you remember was “simplifying” the palette rather than just tinting highlights/shadows, posterization is probably the closest common name. It is a known technique, though usually used as a stylized effect rather than standard portrait correction.
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AI7y ago
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