What is this??

I need some help identifying my problem.
I did a photo shoot last weekend, and most pictures came out well. However there has been 2 photo's the client wants to print LARGE and Im embarrassed to see banding/noise in the photos.

Ive attached one photo of the kid drawing his name. At 25% and viewing on the web, there appears no problem, but 100% shows the most horrible banding/noise on his arm and hand. Remember, she will print this.

The photo obviously was modified to meet POTN's 150kb size limit, but even in RAW I see this right from the camera.

Is this something that can be avoided on my end? Is it the Camera?

Exif: F4.5 manual mode, ISO 800, 1/60 50mm
Camera: 5D2
Lens: Sigma 50mm 1.4

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What program are you using as your raw converter?

Photoshop CS4 camera raw.

That is VERY strange. I have only seen similar effect from an over-PP'ed image, but not from a RAW straight out of the camera. Wish i could be of more help.

I'm wondering if it's a lens effect. Is it possible to do more testing with the Sigma 50 at a range of f-stops?

Keyan is on to something.

I went back and viewed this photo in DPP, and there was NO banding. I then converted it to .jpg and opened with CS4, and that banding is NOT there.

This appears to be some sort of Camera RAW/CS4 problem. Wonder why only 2 photos out of a hundred look like this??

Is your CS4 ACR running the latest updates, i.e. ACR 5.7?
http://www.adobe.com …ads/detail.jsp?​ftpID=4683

If you can get that section free of problems, simply lay it over the original and blend it in.

I see something in the high contrast area around his jawline and chin. But its not uncurable.

Angry Dad wrote in post #13902233
Keyan is on to something.

I went back and viewed this photo in DPP, and there was NO banding. I then converted it to .jpg and opened with CS4, and that banding is NOT there.

This appears to be some sort of Camera RAW/CS4 problem. Wonder why only 2 photos out of a hundred look like this??

I'm not surprised. I've never had ACR make my images look as good as DPP.

It runs everywhere there is slightly OOF high contrast. Looks like some strange gray/green CA that pops up only under certain conditions. LR doesn't have a profile for the Sigma 50 f/1.4, but if you can find one, that might take care of the CA

This is why I stick with Canon's DPP. It's free, and it does an outstanding job. With all the new features that have been added in the past couple of years (unsharp mask, noise reduction, rotation, etc.), I feel no need to buy software from another company.

jayadeff wrote in post #13903835
This is why I stick with Canon's DPP. It's free, and it does an outstanding job. With all the new features that have been added in the past couple of years (unsharp mask, noise reduction, rotation, etc.), I feel no need to buy software from another company.

I find this to be true in my case too. I have Lightroom and Photoshop CS5, but always use DPP to process my images. I think it does a great job!

Odd...I've never ever seen this from any of my images. I've used Lightroom and Photoshop exclusively for quite a long time now.

Pure guess: too much "clarity" adjustment of the RAW file?

Angry Dad wrote in post #13902233
Keyan is on to something.

I went back and viewed this photo in DPP, and there was NO banding. I then converted it to .jpg and opened with CS4, and that banding is NOT there.

This appears to be some sort of Camera RAW/CS4 problem. Wonder why only 2 photos out of a hundred look like this??

At least you can get a useable image out of it then. Just export from there to some lossless format and put it into photoshop.. Like others suggested, you should also make sure your photoshop and Adobe Camera Raw are up to date.