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Photoshop CC gradient banding

Forum|Forum|12 years ago
February 26, 2014
19 replies
94294 views

I've been a using Photoshop for 20 years (as a design professional) and only since I switched to CC a few months ago, I get awful obvious banding when creating gradients. Even in rgb files, which sometimes used to occur in cmyk. Nothing seems to get rid of it, and I'm NOT looking for a noise or blur solution, please, so don't suggest that.

I did the same actions in Adobe 4 which I still have on another computer and it doesn't occur. I hate this. Any suggestions? I have a new latest iMAC so it doesn't seem like that would be the issue.

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Correct answer Chris Cox

It is not a problem - it is a result of having very smooth gradations display or printed on systems with quantization levels (how many bits are displayed/printed) that cause visible banding.

And the solution is always the same: add enough noise to make the banding invisible.

becomingcharly

Participating Frequently

Adding noise did NOT solve my problem and is the exact opposite of the look I was editing towards.

The banding, in my case, was caused by multiple gradient layers. I solved by CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+E. It merges all the layers, without deleting the layers, and it removed the banding. Obviously, this is a final step in editing, but I do this as I see banding to ensure it is in fact layer artifacts.

If in the rare case, this does not solve the problem, then I go back to each layer (turning visibility off/on) until the culprit is identified, so i can lower the opacity/fil.

D Fosse

Community Expert

I need to repeat again that if you are working with 16 bit files, any banding you see is in your display system. It is not in the data. There is no particular reason to do anything, other than that it can be a bit annoying to look at.

Note that even in a 16 bit file, if you are zoomed out to 66.67% or less, the on-screen previews are 8 bit. The banding you see then will disappear when zooming in to 66.7% or 100% - or when the layers are merged in full bit depth. That's why ctrl+shift+alt+E appears to remove it. But in reality it doesn't make any difference to the file itself.

The only way to completely avoid on-screen banding is to use a 10 bit capable monitor and video card.

B

billySHFF

Participant

I want to share my experience with this. I just got a new computer (Alienware Area 51, Titan X, the works) for work and using Adobe Photoshop CC2015. Just a regular gradient/blur brush resulted in heavy banding. My eventual fix was manually changing the monitor's color profile to match the default Photoshop color profile. So, in detail...

1) Under the Color Management window in Windows (for me Windows 10), I "Add..." the color profile I want PER monitor. In this case, I am adding sRGB IEC61966-2.1 to the list. I select it, and "Set as Default Profile". I do this for each monitor I have.

2) I make sure this is the same profile I use under Edit > Color Management in whatever version of Photoshop I am using.

For me, this fixed my banding issue. Hopefully this will help someone else out there as well.

Chris Cox

Legend

OK, that means that your default display profile had problems that exaggerated quantization/banding.

O

ODvisuals

Participant

I find it amazing that this haven't been fixed yet. It has become quite clear that it doesn't have to do with peoples settings or/and monitors etc since everyone no matter what workingstation or screens they have, all have the same issue.

As I've seen some others say before me, this problem hasn't occured in previous versions of Photoshop but rather in the later. I've worked in Photoshop for many many years and there IS a difference, and a clear one at that. It's very annoying and upsetting to work with gradients all the time and see this in every single image...

We need to get a CLEAR explanation as to why this is happening. Please don't give us some bull**** about how "it's a feature" or "there is nothing wrong with the program". We all know that there is something that's not quite right here. If you can't fix this, at least tell us where this issue originates from.

PS! I know that there are workarounds using noise or blurs etc. That's not a real fix. Make it work and don't pretend like it already does.

Thanks...

prolabcloud

Participant

Don't waste your time.adobe is busy in releasing adobe cc 2016 version. they won't take care this problem.people like us spending years searching solution

Chris Cox

Legend

Er, did you reply to the wrong topic by mistake?

This topic is not about a bug, and there is nothing discussed here for Adobe to solve.

zeyda81232775

Participant

Im making depth maps in Photoshop CC 2015 - used to be very straight forward: Create a high res ( ie 4000 by 4000 ) sRGB document, paint various soft shades of grey using 0% hardness in 8 Bit mode, export as a png.

Now Im getting this serious banding on every blend or soft brushstroke. Its DEFINITELY not a display issue, as when these pngs are opened as maps in my 3d software, the banding becomes actual 3d steps in height/depth on my mesh. This means the image I see ( with banding ) in Pshop is exactly what is in the file and thus what is being exported.

Working in 16 bit mode helps a certain amount, but doesnt entirely remove the issue. Seriously considering using GIMP or something...

Chris Cox

Legend

The blending and painting code hasn't changed in Photoshop. Odds are that there is something going on in your workflow that causes the increased quantization/banding (like a bad PNG reader that believed the PNG 1.0 instructions to always convert gamma values).

M

Mark_0001

Participant

The result is to adjust the color settings in Photoshop and select Monitor RGB. Also select Bicubic (best for smooth gradients, then restart Photoshop.

D Fosse

Community Expert

Mark_0001 wrote:

The result is to adjust the color settings in Photoshop and select Monitor RGB.

<sigh>

No, monitor RGB isn't the solution to anything. If monitor RGB has an effect on this, that shows you have a broken/corrupt display profile and fixing that is the solution.

ireuel

Participant

Yep there is not a solution. [to change monitor RGB and Bicubic for smooth gradient]. So is there a solution? The document has 300dpi on 8bits/channel. On windows i don't have this problem. Isn't it about the compression of the Mac screen resolution to it's 13 inch screen? Thanks in advance.

ireuel

Participant

Hi Guys. I am new on Mac and i have the same issue: Gradient Banding and also when i use brush with hardness 0% and opacity for example 35%.

I recently buy macbook pro retina 2015 and I am dissapointed to find this issue on Photoshop CC 2015.

Is there a solution? Thanks in advance.

Herbert2001

Inspiring

What image mode are you working in? If 16bpc, there may be no fix. Switch to 8bit per channel or 32bit per channel. or do not zoom out.

Dustin157

Participant

Here is what is happening. Smooth gradient on the right in Mac OS X El Capitan's Preview, but the so-called "banding" occurs when I open and begin to work on the same file in Photoshop on the left. CMD+Option+Shift is pressed to reset Photoshop when the image is opened, but the problem still occurs.

I've uploaded a picture here to show.

Herbert2001

Inspiring

That is a known issue in Photoshop. Please read the earlier posts. It occurs when:

1) you work with a 16bpc image

2) you zoom out more than 64% (in my case it occurs at 65% and lower)

According to Chris Cox (senior dev for Photoshop):

The image zoom factor has everything to do with the image pyramid/cache levels. When you are at 100% or greater you are looking at the true image. When you zoom out to 50% or less you are looking at the downsampled image pyramid. 16 bit/channel images use an 8 bit/channel image pyramid to improve performance when you are zoomed out. In 8 bit/channel images and 32 bit/channel images this is not a problem, because the pyramid level bit depth matches the base level bit depth. Though in 1 bit/channel images the upper levels are 8 bit/channel, and can cause some confusion when bilevel images start showing averaged gray levels.

I think this is a legacy "feature" to speed up calculations when 16bpc was first introduced in Photoshop. At the time the extra processing power to calculate a full image pyramid at 16bpc might have been an issue, but of course nowadays it is a extremely silly semi-buggy behaviour.

You should also be aware of the fact that 16bpc mode in Photoshop is actually a 15bpc mode. If you import a true 16bpc image into Photoshop, part of the data is thrown away. This might be problematic in certain cases for 3d rendering and game textures.

Anyway, to confirm whether you are experiencing the same issue, please convert to 32bpc mode (flatten if necessary). If the gradient banding disappears, you know that it is due to this legacy "feature".

Ridiculous situation. Let's hope this "feature" will soon be removed - it makes working with 16bpc high resolution images in Photoshop rather difficult, if not impossible under circumstances.

L

louisi39699524

Participant

I am having the same problem but not with all photos...once I "open image" its horrible...Please help

mikefrench_creative

Participant

A bit late in the game on this post but for anyone that reads this far down..

I had some jpgs with some dark blue to black gradients that I processed on a cheap monitor. When I got them back home I noticed some pretty nasty banding.

I have just added a 50% Grey layer (ALT+Click on New Layer) and then added noise and saved as a TIFF. Improved things drastically.

G

Gaurki

Participating Frequently

I was struggling with a banding issue all day. Make sure your Photoshop adjustments are not trying to increase dynamic range beyond limited original image data.

In my case, I built a background with soft gradients, brushes, etc. Didn't notice anything wrong while I was making it, but later I brightened it with a 20% curve (increasing midtone lightness 20%). I didn't make the connection but later started noticing horrible banding.

Things that didn't work:

1. Going to 16 Bit and adding noise did nothing; it was just noisier banding. Even enlarged the noise layer, thinking maybe the noise was too small to effect banding at 1000+ sq. inches. Took forever, computer almost imploded, no result.

2. Changing Photoshop performance settings, cache levels, graphics accelerating, zoom, etc. did nothing. One can always save as a regular JPG and preview it in a different app, if its still banded than it's not Photoshop's view settings.

The problem:

Adding a 20% curve to an 8-bit file that already used the complete dynamic range badly increases banding because I increase the contrast without adding any more detail to the midtones. This will be the same problem if you take a dark photograph (say, lightest point is 50%) into Photoshop in 8-bit and then brighten it up so the lightest point is 100%. That brightening will work better while the photo is still in 12-bit or 16-bit, but too great an adjustment will cause banding regardless; you need range in the original image.

What did work for me:

I copied the blurry gradient background of my image into a separate psb doc, converted to 16-bit, then applied the 20% curve. Then, merged it all and applied a gaussian blur (in this case 65 pixels, in most cases will need much less). This completely eliminated the banding, smudging the image data across the full 16-bit dynamic range. I added slight noise just to be sure. Then converted back to 8-bit, which still looked great, and added my sharp layers back on top.

In most cases, I expect you won't need to go through the trouble of going to 16-bit and back, just re-blur your gradients after you've applied your adjustments (and flattened those adjustment layers, won't work if they're separate on top obviously.)

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