Export settings and quality/"banding" issues?

I'm having a weird issue when I export photos. I get like a color banding almost? I'm not sure how to explain it, so here's a few photos. It's particularly in photos with sky gradients.

How do I get rid of this or fix it during export?

Looking at your export settings I am really surprised that you can see the banding coming through. I did some testing on this issue, admittedly on daytime sky, but at or above level 80 quality I could see no difference in the image from an uncompressed TIFF. I even went to the effort of stacking them in PS in difference mode. The largest difference value at Q80 was 15 which is only just perceptable, and was on a "detail" edge. In order to really see the differences I had to add a levels adjustment layer to push the bottom 8 levels to fill levels 0-128. The link to the thread is here

Alan

Are you starting with RAW files?

Snowyman wrote in post #16544813
Are you starting with RAW files?

Jpeg compression is quite good at creating banding and other tonal loss issues, particularly in the shadow zones. If you then try to expand the tonal curve by raising the shadow levels, banding like this can jump up in a big way. Using the highest quality jpeg setting can help a little, but going RAW - if available - is the best fix.

Yes, I'm shooting RAW. Of course, I can't really export a RAW file--maybe a TIFF--but not a RAW. So I just export as high quality of a JPEG as I can. Shadows weren't boosted much--if anything, brought down.

That's why I'm confused as to why this is happening.

Actually if you want people to look closely at things, you can upload to one of the free "hosts".

The one I've used was YouSendIt.com, very simple and no-hassle to use.

They've changed, they are now HighTail.com, I haven't used their new interface, but others have:

https://www.hightail.c​om/

I've seen it on some photos, even at 90% .jpeg quality.

I assume you can't see it on a 16bit .tiff export?

I think the issue is that the sky both has a gradient and is quite dark and is clean. So at 8-bit you don't have very many levels. I'm not 100% sure, but I think .jpeg compression doesn't handle that well, especially if the sky is 'clean'. If you absolutely need to compress the .jpeg, you might even try something like sharpening the sky or introducing some other low-level noise - it might stop the compression from introducing banding and you may be able to get a smaller file size without the banding and without the noise being noticeable.

ejenner wrote in post #16545868
I've seen it on some photos, even at 90% .jpeg quality.

I assume you can't see it on a 16bit .tiff export?

I think the issue is that the sky both has a gradient and is quite dark and is clean. So at 8-bit you don't have very many levels. I'm not 100% sure, but I think .jpeg compression doesn't handle that well, especially if the sky is 'clean'. If you absolutely need to compress the .jpeg, you might even try something like sharpening the sky or introducing some other low-level noise - it might stop the compression from introducing banding and you may be able to get a smaller file size without the banding and without the noise being noticeable.

Well, I'd say it's pretty natural for jpeg compression at least at Web-size images to show some banding in things such as a clear blue sky, after all, compression is, well compression!

To me, the question would be how would a nice-sized print turn out, with the jpeg at full pixel dimensions and 100% quality?

Now, if you look at a photographer's photos and see no banding in small compressed images, maybe ask for some tips!

Without EXIF info, no one can answer this accurately. My guess would be improper optimal settings for the camera were used. Also, you're showing output for JPGs, but posting PNGs. People can continue to guess, but that's all it is without key info... guesses.

BTW, drop that output quality to 83. You'll never see the difference above that mark.

Upload a sample raw file with the issue. Banding like that can be dealt with in a few different ways - once you give us a sample with the problem, we can probably come up with a solution that fits your workflow.

kirk

Try exporting to a 16 bit TIFF. If that doesn't show it then it's some kind of jpeg artifact.

Again, as I was saying guys, the banding doesn't show at all with TIFF images--only with JPEG.

I think it might have been the fact that I made the photo into the HDR which caused the JPEG banding, though?

I got very minimal banding with this similar, but daytime photo.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …ophotographic/1​1508319714

I haven't been able to figure out a sure fire export fix so I deal with this problem on a case by case. Computer monitors exaggerate banding and other jpeg artifacts. What you see on screen will appear much less obvious(possibly not at all) when printed. I've witnessed this many times in my line of work.

Banding is posterization in the tonal range of an image. To remedy or minimize it you'll need to apply dither if you're using Photoshop CS6 or newer or apply the same effect manually if you're using an older version of Photoshop.

Here's one link that'll walk you through both methods. If you approach this manually it can be helpful to apply the noise to the color cannel or channels that contain the greatest amount of banding. Keep in mind that using a subtle approach will yield the best results.
http://www.iceflowstud​ios.com …s-in-photoshop-dithering/

quadwing wrote in post #16549729
Again, as I was saying guys, the banding doesn't show at all with TIFF images--only with JPEG.

I think it might have been the fact that I made the photo into the HDR which caused the JPEG banding, though?

I got very minimal banding with this similar, but daytime photo.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …ophotographic/1​1508319714

There may not be banding, but the sky does show reasonably strong dithering and noise caused by the .jpg compression. Try saving both images at a higher quality setting.

Please post a raw file that produces your problem. Otherwise you will not get at the source of the problem. It is apparent that your skies are suffering artifact. The question is,"why?"

If your artifact occurs because you edit the image too far beyond what the destination output space and format can contain, then saving is not the culprit. Converting from your working space to the output space can also affect the way blue gets remapped during conversion, and how the rendering intent handles out of gamut colors like maybe the blues in your sky. If the sky is clipping, then you can get issues too. 16 v 8 bit output may address some of these issues, but if the image is destined for the web, it is going to have to be reduced to 8bit JPEG at some point.

If you do not want to post a file, then the discussion is limited by speculation. If the sky is suffering because of your workflow, saving at a higher quality JPEG level of compression will not help - better to try to figure out which step of your workflow is the culprit and address that directly.

And there is "banding" in the above image, mostly in the red channel, but some in the green as well. Attached is a view of the red channel, with some contrast applied to make the problem more evident.

kirk