P: Add fix to photos with shutter-banding

[vtpeters63]

On DPReview and other photography forums photographers using mirrorless cameras without a mechanical shutter (e.g. Nikon Z8, Z9) or photographing with their mirrorless camera in silent mode (using only the electronic shutter, several brands and models) can experience 'banding' in their images when taken under certain types of artificial light. It is caused by the 'rolling shutter' effect and has to do with the speed at which the image is read from the image sensor and the frequency of the light source causing the banding. When dealing with various types of light sources with each their own frequency, it can become almost impossible to prevent from showing up in your photos, despite features like (High Frequency) Flicker Reduction.

Although it's better to prevent banding from happening by choosing the best shutter speed for the given  situation, banding can not always be prevented.

There are ways of deminishing the 'effect' of banding in Photoshop by using layers or masks and apply a certain amount of gausian or motion blur in the same direction as the shortest side of the sensor/photo.

I think it would be a great feature if Lightroom would support the elimination of banding in photos, either by using its powerfull AI the same way as with the newly added AI based noise reduction feature. Or by adding the option to add blur to a selecton or mask in the Masking module.

It is my believe that, because banding is a quite regular pattern in the photo, AI should be able to detect it in photos and possibly remove it.

I hope you seriously consider adding this feature to Lightroom (however you might implement it) and/or Photoshop. The photography world is slowly but steadily moving towards mirrorless cameras and photographing with electronic shutter only (either because they don't want to make noiseor because the camera doesn't have a physical shutter).

Thank you for reading this post.

[D Fosse]

Yes, this is a problem I've been aware of for a long time. I have my Sonys permanently set to mechanical shutter, and on the rare occasions where no noise is tolerated, I always try to get there early and test beforehand to find a relatively safe shutter speed range.

But even so, there are situations where this will happen - and I didn't even know there were cameras that don't have a mechanical shutter at all. Then it has to be a huge problem. LED lights are everywhere these days.

This is an obvious candidate for AI. I've tried to correct a few of these manually in Photoshop, and it can be surprisingly difficult - much more difficult than you would think. It's not just a question of setting a curve and shift-click the lines in the mask. You can spend a workday getting one of these to look good.

One "problem" is that new sensors are on their way that read the whole scene in one go, they don't scan line by line. Sony has one out already, can't remember what they call this new sensor technology. It's a "problem" because any efforts to make this will eventually be moot one day. But in the meantime, I'm all for it. There are still plenty enough of these cameras out there.

[vtpeters63]

Hi,

The name for a sensor that reads out the entire image in one sweep is
called "global shutter".

But this will only be available in very expensive cameras (the only one
I know of is the Sony A9 III).

And in the mean time all other photographers who shoot silent of whose
cameras don't have a mechanical shutter are stuck with the possibility
of banding in/on their images.

--
Kind regards,

Victor Peters

[D Fosse]

Ah, yes, global shutter.

And the a9iii does have a pretty steep price tag, even at only 24 MP (a9 is Sony's high speed/action/sports line). But this is just the beginning. This is obviously where sensors will go.

Obviously, that's not to say this isn't a problem worth solving right now. We all have to deal with this for many years to come.

Especially when you consider all the downright silly things AI is used for now. Someone obviously thought that was worthwhile spending development efforts on - and here we actually have a real problem that people have to deal with. Here's where AI could do some real good, not just make toys.

[Steven CH]

All in for un-banding AI. I very often have to shoot silent in LED-lit environments and it's killing me.