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Participant
September 23, 2017
Answered

Photoshop Soft Brush Banding

  • September 23, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 2189 views

Hello,

I have done quite a bit of research with no such luck.  I am getting banding when using soft brushes on my work.  I have Photoshop elements 9 (yes its a little old), but I have not experienced this before.  My latest project was to make a space scene.  I used the following tutorial:  Photoshop Tutorial: How to Quickly Create Stars, Planets and Faraway Galaxies - YouTube When I got to adding the nebulae and gas, this is what I got:

The soft brush exhibits a lot of banding.  When just performing the brushstroke in one place.

I have a samsung 4k monitor and I have not done anything special with them or my graphics card.  Is there a setting in photoshop, or on my computer to calibrate properly?

Thank you, Michael

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Mylenium

    Banding is an inherent limitation of working in low bit-depths. Simple computer math. Switch to 16bit or higher. Also  brushes only containing very few discrete levels of transparency will of course exacerbate the issue - squeezing a limited number of levels into an even smaller range by reducing the brush opacity naturally doesn't leave much room for smooth gradations. So in the end, it's always a combination of multiple factors and you have to learn and understand these things. With experience you'll manage to avoid those pitfalls by using bvalnaced settings.

    Mylenium

    1 reply

    Mylenium
    MyleniumCorrect answer
    Legend
    September 23, 2017

    Banding is an inherent limitation of working in low bit-depths. Simple computer math. Switch to 16bit or higher. Also  brushes only containing very few discrete levels of transparency will of course exacerbate the issue - squeezing a limited number of levels into an even smaller range by reducing the brush opacity naturally doesn't leave much room for smooth gradations. So in the end, it's always a combination of multiple factors and you have to learn and understand these things. With experience you'll manage to avoid those pitfalls by using bvalnaced settings.

    Mylenium