Digital BW, The Print

Austin, Todd, Anybody Else,

Would it be correct to think about it this way:

An 8-bit file is like a 1/8" thick piece of glass. A 16-bit file is like a 
1/2" thick piece of glass. As in, you can toss and work with and 
manipulate the 1/2" thick piece without doing much damage to it, 
whereas the 1/8" thick piece is very fragile, as in -- It's much 
easier to mess up, or "comb", a histogram in an 8-bit file, 
whereas you can tone, or Level, or Curve, a 16-bit much more, 
before introducing any degree of "combing"?

(Would somebody care to diagram that prior sentence?)

I've never known what I've done to a file when I check the 
Histogram and see the combing. I work with most all files the 
exact same way. Some stay nice and smooth, others get pretty 
ugly. Maybe I'd run into much less chance of ugly ones if I'd do 
most of that initial burning/doding/leveling/curving in 16-bit?

-Mark