SNS-HDR circular banding?

I have been pretty happy with Photomatix Pro 4.1 lately, but decided to check out SNS-HDR this morning.

I immediately noticed that when three .TIFs were merged, all of the presets show a strange circular banding in the merged image. It is there in all of the presets, but the "night" mode shows it the most (I would not normally choose this mode for an image like this, but did only for illustration here).

What causes this circular banding, and how can it be avoided?

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I've never seen such circular banding in SNS-HDR. You can share the source exposures?

Pebal wrote in post #13929474
I've never seen such circular banding in SNS-HDR. You can share the source exposures?

Yes, but how do I get them to you? They are pretty large (3 images at about 100 Mb each). Do you have an FTP site I can send them to?

The TIFs are the output of DxO Optics Pro 7.1 having processed Canon EOS 60D CR2 files for lens corrections. I save them out of DxO as TIFs to combine in HDR programs. The same images worked fine in Photomatix Pro 4.1 and Machinery HDR without the strange circular banding.

michaelnel wrote in post #13929557
Yes, but how do I get them to you? They are pretty large (3 images at about 100 Mb each). Do you have an FTP site I can send them to?

I do not have an ftp server. Please, share or send me these images in JPEG format.

Pebal wrote in post #13929831
I do not have an ftp server. Please, share or send me these images in JPEG format.

OK, I put them in my junkbox on my smugmug site. They are still max quality full-size jpegs, but down to about 8MB each. Put "http://" in front of them to grab them. I trimmed it off for posting here so people that click on the message won't inadvertently start a download.

michaelnel.smugmug.com​/Other/Michaels-Junkbox/i-xWQDR78/0/O/IMG4358DxO​.jpg

michaelnel.smugmug.com​/Other/Michaels-Junkbox/i-mSBBFsJ/0/O/IMG4360DxO​.jpg

michaelnel.smugmug.com​/Other/Michaels-Junkbox/i-T7GMvsF/0/O/IMG4359DxO​.jpg

michaelnel wrote in post #13930857
OK, I put them in my junkbox on my smugmug site. They are still max quality full-size jpegs, but down to about 8MB each. Put "http://" in front of them to grab them. I trimmed it off for posting here so people that click on the message won't inadvertently start a download.

Thanks for your images.
The circular banding can be found in the source image. You look at image IMG4358DxO.jpg

Very strange. Must be something DxO is doing. But, as I said, Photomatix Pro doesn't have a problem with those DxO-processed files.

michaelnel wrote in post #13931295
Very strange. Must be something DxO is doing. But, as I said, Photomatix Pro doesn't have a problem with those DxO-processed files.

You can see the misty rocks in the image from Photomatix?
In SNS-HDR must be reduced "Lights Microdetails" parameter.

Pebal wrote in post #13931337
You can see the misty rocks in the image from Photomatix?
In SNS-HDR must be reduced "Lights Microdetails" parameter.

Sorry, but I don't understand what you are saying here.

I understand there is a Lights -> Microdetails slider in SNSHDR and that it must be reduced. But what are you saying about Photomatix Pro?

michaelnel wrote in post #13931438
Sorry, but I don't understand what you are saying here.

Cannot see the rocks in the image from Photomatix.

Yes - when you increase the contrast in the region of the histogram that is in the peak containing the gray sky and far away landmass (so that you can see that landmass through the fog) you reveal the concentric banding that appears to be centered around the geometric center of the image. Try reprocessing your images in DXO with no corrections (apply the no corrections preset). Then run this images through the various HDR applications.

kirk

Thanks. I don't *want* to see through the fog. I couldn't see through it when I was there. It does seem DxO is the culprit here. I really only used it for lens corrections prior to the HDR processing, and if it does that banding I won't use it. I processed the same RAW files with ACR's lens corrections and didn't get that banding, and I think ACR corrected the lens problems just fine.

I'm becoming less happy with DxO Optics Pro 7 every time I use it.

If you can upload one of the raw files to an FTP site, I will take a look at it in DXO. I use DXO pretty frequently and have not had this issue. I have also done testing with DXO7 and would like to get the problem rectified in a future release, so if there is an issue I would be happy to try to identify it and make it known to DXO.

Otherwise PM me and we can do the file transfer outside of this thread.

kirk

See attached screenshot for the curve I used in DXO - I also tweaked the screenshot in PS to make the bands more apparent.

kirk

Please try this on your machine:

1) open the middle exposure raw file in DXO (IMG_4358)
2) set the "Apply preset..." menu choice to "No Correction."
3) Enable the "Tone Curve" palette so you can apply a crazy tone curve to emphasize the area of the sky that is plagued with the artifact.
4) In the Tone Curve Master, make a curve that drags the center of the tone curve downward, so that the mid tone point is positioned halfway horizontally, but all the way on the baseline vertically (i.e., at 128 input = 0 output).
5) drag the 3/4 tone point so that it is 3/4 of the way on the horizontal axis, but pegged to the top on the vertical axis (that is input = 192, output = 255).

At this point the image should be blocked up where the land is and bluish and bright where the sky is. You should see some darker blues in the upper corners due to the lens vignetting.

Here is where I think the problem lies....

6) Enable the Vignetting correction palette.

You should see the banding appear in the sky areas. This is a problem. Try clicking on the little "+" symbol in the Vignetting palette to reveal the preserve highlight/shadow slider and see if adjusting this gives you any better results.

The concentric nature of the banding, centered around the midpoint of the image made me suspect this. Please send DXO tech support an email with your example image.

I will post a bug report in the beta test forum for Mac, but you should alert them to the problem on your Win machine as well.

kirk

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It looks much different here on a Win7/64 machine. I don't have a MASTER curve, I have RGB, red, green, and blue. I chose RGB and followed your instructions (I think) and I sure don't see the pronounced banding you show in your screen shot.

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