RAW

I read somewhere that i should work in 16bit with my photos but what about when i want to print them out..........i cannot save them as a jpeg and if i convert them to 8 bit then what was the point in working with them in 16bit? can anyone comment on this?

There's a huge thread on 8 vs 16 bit somewhere around here. Basically if you're doing a lot of color manipulations work in 16 bit mode then convert to 8 bit before you save. If you're just doing basic stuff don't bother, IMHO.

Tim's right. I pretty much save my raw files as 16 bit as a matter of course, whether there will be lots of edits or not. The consisitancy adds speed to the process. I have actions in PS that flatten and output 8 bit jpegs for the web, regardless of how much editing was done. Sometimes, though, if I need a picture fast, I will output a 8 bit jpeg directly from ACR, and print it. It all depends on how quickly you need the print.

BTW, tim, I see you have fallen prey to the "Red Hat Avatar" virus. Very nice, Happy Holidays!

In 8 bit rounding off errors accumulate and gaps between tones open up. It's like you are buying items that cost $1.60 but you only have dollar bills. If you pay for each one separately, $2 each time, ten will cost you $20. But if you add up your bill only when you leave the store, it will cost you $16.
Elie

If you're working with the images in PS, etc. then 16 bit is the way to go - otherwise you're throwing away too much data. For printing - I agree with the others - 8 bit is fine.

That's an interesting analogy. It's also pretty accurate.

If you are doing the printing, just print directly from the .TIF or .PSD. There's no reason to convert to .JPG for printing unless you are electronically transferring the image files to a printing service and need to save transmission time (or if the printing service demands .JPG files).