Problem with element opacity

[Vera Jesus]

Hi everyone,
I hope you can help me...
I'm trying to do a desktop wallpaper to my work but i'm struggling with one problem.

The desktop will be black background with the element logo with low opacity.
The problem is that when I make opacity to 38%, the quality of the element (the gradient) is gone.
I don't know what I'm doing wrong.
I tried to first change the opacity of the element in Illustrator and then put in PS but the result it's the same...

Can you see the attach and help me...

Thank you

Vera

 

[chrisix]

This is due to the ammount of colors your file uses
when you make a new file, you can select the color mode, you chose RGB and 8 bit
make a new file and select 16bit or 32 bit colors

the quality loss was because photoshop ran out of colors
changing to 16bit or even 32 bit will solve this, but make the file size bigger ofcourse

 

[Vera Jesus]

Hi chrisix,

Although in file info says 8-bit but when I go to Image -> Mode I see that the file is 16bits/channel.
What I'm doing wrong...

 

[IamSam]

Vera, among others, one problem with reducing the opacity of one layer is that you allow more of the underlying layer to show through. In your case, the graphic element of your wallpaper loses its quality as you lower it's opacity because the black layer is diffusing its color.

It's only one simple way to solve the problem but here's the original...



And here I have added a second graphic layer by simply duplicating the first. I then lowered their opacity levels until the graphic looked better and not so washed out.





Again, simple fix. There may be a better way.

 

[ALB68]

Here is a comparison based on changing the bit depth. These are both at 38% opacity. Left is original 16bit, right is 32bit file.