CS5 Gradient Banding...HELP!

[Ryan L]

Hoping someone might know a fix. I am applying a gradient to a mask and I can't get the banding to go away. Its driving me crazy! When searching for a solution all I find is to check dither...doesnt work, I tried applying a gaussian blur, but since its a mask it doesnt affect it. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[flameshots]

First off I am NOT an expert by any stretch of the imagination but the first thing I thought of was to "refine edge" on the mask before aplying the gradient.

 

[Buckster]

Google: https://www.google.com/search?q=gra...ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7ADFA_en


First link: How To Correct Banding In Your Gradients Using Photoshop - SloDive

 

[KmH]

Add some noise.

 

[Ryan L]

Google: https://www.google.com/search?q=gra...ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7ADFA_en


First link: How To Correct Banding In Your Gradients Using Photoshop - SloDive

Sorry, maybe you didn't see that I already tried tried that as stated in my post...

 

[Ryan L]

Add some noise.

I know that will work, but its supposed to look like a gloss floor. Oh how I wish Adobe would fix their banding issue! Oh well I just eliminated the gradient altogether.

 

[Ryan L]

First off I am NOT an expert by any stretch of the imagination but the first thing I thought of was to "refine edge" on the mask before aplying the gradient.

...but its a big rectangle that I selected with the marquee tool...I think its refined just right. If you saw the whole picture I think it would make more sense.

 

[KmH]

Oh how I wish Adobe would fix their banding issue!

How is it Adobe's issue?

 

[Buckster]

Google: https://www.google.com/search?q=gra...ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7ADFA_en


First link: How To Correct Banding In Your Gradients Using Photoshop - SloDive

Sorry, maybe you didn't see that I already tried tried that as stated in my post...

Sorry, I missed that. It would help a lot if we could see the image and get a little more info on what you're trying to achieve.

I just played a little to see what I might be able to come up with, and one thing I noticed is that the green channel seems to be the very worst when it comes to banding issues. When amounts of green are mixed in with the other two channels in a gradient, it "pollutes" the area and bands occur almost every time. When I made pure gradients of 255 blue to 1 blue (effectively black), and the red and green at 0, banding couldn't be seen, unless I was only looking at the blue channel, just to see what was there. In RGB mode, all was well. Same when I did it with red at 255 and blue and green both at 0. Even with red and blue both at 255, as long as green was at 0, things looked pretty good.

I found that interesting.

 

[Ryan L]

Oh how I wish Adobe would fix their banding issue!

How is it Adobe's issue?

While it may not actually be Adobes issue, they provide a product that is used for editing. If they can make a feature to deblur a photogs screw up, they can find a algorithm to make a smooth gradient I think.

 

[Ryan L]

Google: https://www.google.com/search?q=gra...ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7ADFA_en


First link: How To Correct Banding In Your Gradients Using Photoshop - SloDive

Sorry, maybe you didn't see that I already tried tried that as stated in my post...

Sorry, I missed that. It would help a lot if we could see the image and get a little more info on what you're trying to achieve.

I just played a little to see what I might be able to come up with, and one thing I noticed is that the green channel seems to be the very worst when it comes to banding issues. When amounts of green are mixed in with the other two channels in a gradient, it "pollutes" the area and bands occur almost every time. When I made pure gradients of 255 blue to 1 blue (effectively black), and the red and green at 0, banding couldn't be seen, unless I was only looking at the blue channel, just to see what was there. In RGB mode, all was well. Same when I did it with red at 255 and blue and green both at 0. Even with red and blue both at 255, as long as green was at 0, things looked pretty good.

I found that interesting.

The part of the image is posted up top that I am having the banding in. I am making a gloss floor beneath a team photo, with a reflection. I am trying to bring a gradient from black to tranparent to imitate light fall off just behind the team, to the bottom of the image. I even tried this at 32 bit and still have banding. I am at a loss. Maybe I will play around with adding another color to the gradient so see if that smooths it out a little.

 

[Buckster]

Sorry, maybe you didn't see that I already tried tried that as stated in my post...

Sorry, I missed that. It would help a lot if we could see the image and get a little more info on what you're trying to achieve.

I just played a little to see what I might be able to come up with, and one thing I noticed is that the green channel seems to be the very worst when it comes to banding issues. When amounts of green are mixed in with the other two channels in a gradient, it "pollutes" the area and bands occur almost every time. When I made pure gradients of 255 blue to 1 blue (effectively black), and the red and green at 0, banding couldn't be seen, unless I was only looking at the blue channel, just to see what was there. In RGB mode, all was well. Same when I did it with red at 255 and blue and green both at 0. Even with red and blue both at 255, as long as green was at 0, things looked pretty good.

I found that interesting.

The part of the image is posted up top that I am having the banding in. I am making a gloss floor beneath a team photo, with a reflection. I am trying to bring a gradient from black to tranparent to imitate light fall off just behind the team, to the bottom of the image. I even tried this at 32 bit and still have banding. I am at a loss. Maybe I will play around with adding another color to the gradient so see if that smooths it out a little.

Suck all the green out of it and see if that helps.

 

[KmH]

Oh how I wish Adobe would fix their banding issue!

How is it Adobe's issue?

While it may not actually be Adobes issue, they provide a product that is used for editing. If they can make a feature to deblur a photogs screw up, they can find a algorithm to make a smooth gradient I think.

All software has gradient banding issues if the gradient only has an 8-bit depth.

I wasn't aware Adobe had a "feature to deblur a photogs screw up".

Algorithms aren't magic, but:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable for magic. Arthur C. Clarke

 

[Ryan L]

Are you talking about in the gradient editor? I just played around with it for awhile, but no matter what I do, I can always see the gradient change (granted thats what a gradient is, but I am looking for smooth seamless). Although when I lose a channel, it does seem to look better. I guess I have never ran into this much of an issue with banding, I am not sure if its because of the color or what. I have now spent probably 4 hours trying to make it go away! If this was for a personal project I wouldnt care as much, but this was T&I for a wrestling club. I thought for sure when I went to 32 bit color mode it would resolve this issue, I changed that back so I didnt have to work in a 3GB file size! I can post a screen shot of more of the image if it would help, but I think I am about done, and am going to leave that part out.

 

[Ryan L]

How is it Adobe's issue?

While it may not actually be Adobes issue, they provide a product that is used for editing. If they can make a feature to deblur a photogs screw up, they can find a algorithm to make a smooth gradient I think.

All software has gradient banding issues if the gradient only has an 8-bit depth.

I wasn't aware Adobe had a "feature to deblur a photogs screw up".

Algorithms aren't magic, but:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable for magic. Arthur C. Clarke

I was in 32Bit depth btw, still with banding.

OMG you didnt see the latest De-blur technology they previewed a few months ago...BRB with the video...stay tuned, you are about to be mezmorized.

Here it is: