Colour banding problem (stripes) in gradients - Images linked!

[Aragiss]

I was trying to make a simple black-dark blue gradient background on Photoshop CC. Created a 7500 x 5000 pixel image with 16-bit colour. When I used the gradient tool, I noticed a severe amount of banding.

After a quick search, I've seen some people suggest turning off graphics card acceleration, so I did that but it didn't fix anything. Also tried to do the same in 8-bit. In 8-bit, there is no colour banding visible in Photoshop, but when I save it as a JPG, the JPG file has it too.

I have a Dell U2414H IPS monitor and AMD HD7850 gpu. The monitor has pretty good colour accuracy since it's factory calibrated. The OS is Windows 7 64 bit running at 32-bit colour mode.

Here is the link to the images. Can you also see banding? Especially asking this to people with high-end monitors. (View them in full size please)

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Did you use "Dither"?

Adding Noise might also gel, but I recommend sticking with 16bit.

jpg may actually introduce problems with gradients like these so a non-destructive or no compression may be called for.

[Aragiss]

Dither was on. Tried it without dither, but it didn't help

I'm afraid it has to be JPG for my purposes. I've seen several JPG's with smooth gradients, so that shouldn't be a big problem, right?

[c.pfaffenbichler]

I've seen several JPG's with smooth gradients, so that shouldn't be a big problem, right?

Wrong, the appearance of banding in gradients depends on the colors involved amongst others and in this case the luminance difference seems small.

Try adding noise.

[Aragiss]

Dithering and blurring don't work. Noise somewhat works if I make it really noisy, but I don't want that.

I tried saving as TIFF and that made it a bit better, but not by a whole lot. But you're definitely right about PS not being good at handling gradient in JPEG compression. I'm really disappointed in how PS handles low-contrast gradients. Going to try the plug-in D Fosse mentioned.

[Farrellart]

Thinking about it, what is the jpeg output size? and is compression set to 100%.

Like D Fosse states, gradients are tricky in PS, my work around is to paint the colours and blend with the mixer brush tool and motion blur on a separate layer over the gradient and play with transparency and layer styles in a hit and miss approach. After a bit I can hit a good output.

It's up to you, I would like to help you, if you can PM me with a link to the file I can have go at resolving the issue. Obviously, if you are contracted to a client I can't do this. I can't guarantee, but, if I can help I will.

Best wishes

[postrophe]

Hi

Like D Fosse states, gradients are tricky in PS ...

In any software I might add. (for as long as I remember.)

Just a strait solid color (without some noise) in some output can look weird.

(note) For serious digital printing, check the New Xerox iGen 5, at Pazazz ( a few minutes from my house )

Pierre

[c.pfaffenbichler]

PS not being good at handling gradient in JPEG compression

You may be misunderstanding, it’s not Photoshop but the jpg compression that is the problem in this case.

[Aragiss · Accepted solution]

I found a way around it. I saved the file as PNG, then opened it on Faststone Image Viewer and saved it there as JPEG. I set the quality to highest and turned color sampling off. The result was pretty much the same quality as PNG, which is impressive. Saving it in Photoshop with max quality creates a 4.8 mb file whereas Faststone created a 11.5 mb file. Interesting result...

[Farrellart]

I have an Eizo cg301w (30bit) and I see banding in your images, but, they appear to be smaller than 7500x5000 px . What is the gradient used for? images via a browser won't look great.

Print out the jpeg and see if the banding is still there. Also, monitors lose their calibration quite quickly, do you have a calibrator, I use the ColourMunki photo and it's great with my Eizo. I need to calibrate Eizo after around 4 weeks or so.

EDIT: I have just downloaded the larger image and it's 72ppi, not sure if that is good enough for a smooth gradient. Have you tried it in Illustrator CC ( assuming you have sign up for the full creative cloud ) ?

[D Fosse]

Farrellart wrote:

I use the ColourMunki photo

You are using Eizo ColorNavigator software with the ColorMunki sensor, right? If not, you're really wasting a great monitor...?

[Farrellart]

@ D Fosse.

Yep! of course I am using the ColorNavigator software ....the 301w set me back £3,000 a few years back - best investment I have made for my digital art.......I am looking at the Eizo 4k's, so much desktop real estate, I might wait for the prices to come down though.

[D Fosse]

Ah, you had me worried there for a second...

Yes, I have my eyes on the new 4K's too (using a CG246 and a CX240 now), but like you I think the current prices are too high, and they are bound to come down sooner or later. Let's give it a year or two...

[Terri_Stevens]

Everyone else's suggestions are correct, so not much to add except if you happen to have the Topaz Denoise plugin it has a special algorithm for removing banding in Jpeg and raw files. There's a free trial so if this is a one off need it might be worth trying it out.

Terri

[D Fosse]

BTW - yes, I do see banding in those files that is not there when I recreate the gradient in Photoshop.

Partly I'm sure that's the jpeg compression. But I have also made jpegs that are fine here, but suddenly show banding when viewed in a browser - like when I post them in the forum here. To be honest I have no idea what happens with that, and what the browser does to the original jpeg. The closest I get to a guess is different handling of the monitor profile (I use Firefox).

In short - banding is tricky business and sometimes hard to avoid. Noise is the best option.