Posterization Woes - Photoshop CS6

[Black_Square]

Hi guys,

I have a real issue with Photoshop.

I often undertake extensive editing in photoshop, using many layers. I have noticed that if i view the image zoomed out beyond 66%, I see notable banding. However, when i zoom in beyond 66%, the banding disappears. You can imagine the difficulties when trying to edit an image when you think you have banding problems, that don't actually exist!

At first i thought this was a hardware issue, but after undertaking a bit of research, it seems that problem is caused by PS rendering the various adjustments created by layers in 8 bit format, despite the fact that the main image is in 16 bit. I gather that this is to increase the speed/performance of PS. Obviously, this comes at the cost of image quality (until you zoom in).

A better explanation is provided here:

Color Banding and Posterization at all Zoom Lev... |Adobe Community

and here:

30 Bit Display Layer Combination Accuracy Question |Adobe Community

The above posts suggest tinkering with the cache levels etc, but after trying this has made no difference.

I was just wondering if anybody else had encountered this problem and if so whether they had discovered a successful work around?

Thanks for the help!

 

[jcdeboever]

Wonder if gimp does that? It's open source and may be worth a try.

 

[smoke665]

I haven't noticed the banding but I've had numerous performance issues with PS over the last few months, including slow response and going non responsive (requiring closing with task manager and reopening). I suspect that part of it may be due to my more detailed editing, layers, etc. building a larger history file, I've occasionally purged the clipboard and history, when it becomes unbearable. Also had to adjust the cache and history levels in Preferences.

 

[KmH]

Did GIMP ever go to 16-bit?

 

[Ysarex]

Did GIMP ever go to 16-bit?

Not yet. There is an unstable development version available -- 2.9.

Joe

 

[KmH]

So GIMP is now some 5 years behind on the 16-bit capability, which makes one suspect hell will freeze over before GIMP achieves 16-bithood.

 

[Black_Square]

Thanks for the responses. I have never used gimp, but would be reluctant to do so if it only runs 8bit files. So, it looks as though nobody has encountered this issue - just my luck!

 

[smoke665]

In reading the two articles you referenced and the suggestions therein to reduce the cache levels still make me think it's partly a hardware issue. Didn't ask before but are you on a PC or Mac?

 

[Black_Square]

I'm on a pc. It's a Beefy setup although I have spotted a potential bottle neck with the graphics card so I have just ordered 2 new cards which I will cross fire. My current setup was designed around my d810s 45mb raw files so I'm not sure whether it's hardware. Anyway, will find it in a week!

 

[smoke665]

I suspect that with your level of editing that amount of data to process in rendering the image on screen is huge. In addition to the graphics card upgrade might need to look into more ram and/Or processor upgrade. Will be interested in what you find out.