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pjbren
Participant
October 4, 2021
Question

Banding with soft brush in Photoshop

  • October 4, 2021
  • 1 reply
  • 678 views

Lately I've noticed that the layer masks I create are full of banding after doing some painting on them with a soft brush.  I have never been able to see this before.  The gradients from white to black were very smooth, even very gradual gradients created with a very soft brush and low opacity.  The image is 16 bits.  I've tried opening the banded images in Lightroom, and they are still banded, even after exporting as a jpeg, so the banding is actually present in the file, not just showing up on my display.  I have view the files on multiple displays, and all show the banding.  Any ideas on the cause of this, and why it would just be showing up now?  Graphics driver and Photoshop are updated to current versions.  Thanks for any help anyone can offer.  This is really hurting my work.

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1 reply

D Fosse
Community Expert
D FosseCommunity Expert
Community Expert
October 4, 2021

This is 8 bit banding, which can happen at several different points along the processing data path. Banding is cumulative and many factors can contribute.

 

  • You need to view the 16 bit original in Photoshop at 66.7% zoom or higher. At lower zoom ratios, the preview is 8 bit.
  • Exporting to jpeg always converts to 8 bit. The jpeg format doesn't support 16 bit depth. Jpeg compression can introduce banding on top of that.
  • If you still see banding in your 16 bit original in Photoshop, at 66.7% zoom or higher, the banding is in your display system which always works at 8 bit depth, unless you have a 10 bit capable monitor/video card.
  • A bad monitor profile, or calibration adjustments in the video card, can exaggerate it. Most office/gaming/laptop display panels are actually 6 bit + dithering.

 

In short, many things can build on top of each other to make banding worse. The only way to avoid it is to use a 10 bit display/video card, and view your 16 bit files at 66.7% or higher in Photoshop.

    P
    pjbrenAuthor
    Participant
    October 4, 2021

    Thank you very much for the reply. 

     

    I'm concerned about whether these layer masks which appear full of banding are effecting their coresponding layers in a banded way, i.e., if there is banding present in the mask, a banded effect will show up on the layer below it.  If I were using soft brushes to create a graphic in Photoshop, I would be pretty upset that the banding was showing up in my final image. 

     

    So there is no way to create a smooth looking gradient between brush strokes that would look good to a final viewer unless everyone viewing the image has a 10 bit capable display and views the file in Photoshop above 66.7%?

    D Fosse
    Community Expert
    D FosseCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 4, 2021

    Well, if your display works at 8 bit depth, there are only 256 possible values between black and white. Those discrete steps will be clearly visible in a smooth gradient. There's nothing you can do about that. But if your file is 16 bit, it won't be in the data, and that's the important thing.

     

    Actually, there is one additional small gotcha that you should be aware of: While masks are the same depth as the document, selections are not. A selection is always 8 bit. This is one area where old codebase slips through. So if a mask is based on a selection, that 8 bit banding will carry over, until you modify it in some way. So to be clear, painting in a mask is full 16 bit depth.

     

    If the on-screen banding bothers you, there is a way to hide it: add a little noise. Not so much that you can see it, just a tiny bit to break up the banding.

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