Quote:
Originally Posted by sandyeggo325i
posterization being............??  |
Posterization is where you get discrete colors or levels instead of a continuous variation in tone/shade. It happens when you amp up the contrast too much. Suppose you start out with 256 levels (8 bit) and this shows up as a nice smooth variation on your monitor or print. Crank up the contrast enough and you'll only be working with a small fraction of that 256 and you'll start to see regions with distinct colors and sharp boundaries between these regions rather than the smooth transitions found in an unboosted image.
Or for the official version:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posterization