Banding in JPEG gradients - YCbCr problem?

Forum|Forum|22 hours ago
August 25, 2026
9 replies
73 views

I recently discovered that banding has started appearing in smooth color gradients when saving JPEGs in Adobe Photoshop. Naturally, I always save at maximum quality—12 out of 12. If I save as an 8-bit TIFF and then convert to JPEG using FastStone, I can select RGB as the photometric type in the save options; furthermore, I don't necessarily have to choose 100% quality—which would result in a 40 MB file for my example—since 95% is perfectly adequate for me, yielding flawless gradients and a file size of 16 MB, matching what Photoshop produces at its maximum quality setting (12 out of 12). Samples are here: https://disk.yandex.ru/d/7mPxpYfAsDOR7g

Can you implement RGB photometry support in JPEG to achieve better image quality?

A

andrein92163288Author

Participant

Look at the smooth gradients to the left of and above the bird. You don't need to view it at 400% magnification; the banding is visible in the full frame.

davescm

Community Expert

I understand your request, and can see a use for it, but I wonder if that is the root of the issue you are seeing.

I opened your images here, using calibrated and profiled, Eizo monitors. I viewed at 100% which is 1 image pixel mapped to 1 screen pixel. Any lesser zoom is not a true preview and can hide, or introduce, banding on the preview.

I do not see any banding over and above that expected in an 8 bit image. The Photoshop and Faststone images look all but identical. To check, I loaded both as layers into the same document and used the difference blend mode. The max difference was L1

To see any difference I had to add an extreme curve adjustment (the same to both images), that did reveal differences. The Faststone image indeed showed a smoother gradient but also revealed some additional noise. You could add a little noise in Photoshop which is very effective at hiding 8 bit banding.

In the current Photoshop, I would process and save the original RAW as a 16 bit TIFF, or PSD/PSB. Then, to export a jpeg, use Export.Save for Web to create a jpeg. Any further edits or jpeg creation - start with the 16 bit master. I would not resave a jpeg.

Dave

D Fosse

Community Expert

Yes, a very common trick to reduce banding is dither - a tiny imperceptible amount of noise, just enough to break up the banding in 8 bit data. Lots of applications apply that automatically. Photoshop can do that too, but it has to be manually turned on.

D Fosse

Community Expert

I don’t see any more banding in the Photoshop version you posted - actually, if anything, it looks smoother. Here’s a detail at 400%, and what you see here is just normal 8 bit banding. There’s only 256 discrete steps per channel in a jpeg, and that’s what you see here:

However, your images are untagged. That makes it difficult to assess. It could be down to how the two applications handle untagged material. In that case Photoshop will convert from your working space to your monitor profile, but other applications may pass the data straight through without any conversion at all. If your monitor profile is defective/damaged, that may account for the difference.

A

andrein92163288Author

Participant

Look at the smooth gradients to the left of and above the bird. You don't need to view it at 400% magnification; the banding is visible in the full frame. I use sRGB ONLY.

c.pfaffenbichler

Community Expert

I suppose you can post a Feature Request.

A

andrein92163288Author

Participant

Done.

c.pfaffenbichler

Community Expert

What with the state of »Save for Web« (legacy) and »Export As« (apparently not fully finished) I am not sure what the path forward will be regarding exporting in Photoshop …

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