Gradient not smooth….

CS
Posted By
Claudio_Sepulveda
Dec 11, 2006
Views
1667
Replies
21
Status
Closed
hey folks,

I am having a very hard time with this one. For 3 days now i’ve been trying to fix my problem and I ran out of ideas. I can’t find the real problem so I can’t
fix it. Alright so here is my problem:

< http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41/clos3d/bad-gradient.jpg> <http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41/clos3d/Untitled-1.jpg>

See how the gradient isnt smooth at all? It look like my color arent really 32bits, but it is on 32. And painting in dark area I can get some very messy pixel
with purple/green color(very subtile).

This is what I did:
Replacing my color profile (ICC and within photoshop it self) Re-installing photoshop
Formating
Replacing my graphic card
Changing monitors
Trying on my friend computer.

None of the above worked. Changing monitors on my computers did no effect at all. I went to my friend place and try my monitor there and it was fucked up as well
(wich I am really confuse about now).

So where I end up with is: Can my monitors affect the whole way how my image is gonna be rendered?

My monitors is a LG L204WT and the driver it self dosent match with photoshop so I have to leave it with the plug N’ play driver.

Everything is up-to-date and I just can’t think anymore…. So if anyone have a clue hook me up!

Thanks for your time.

This is my spec:
Nvidia 6600GT
AMD athlon 3000+ 64 processor
1gb RAM
LG L204WT Digital Cable.
Using:
Photoshop cs2
Windows XP professional.

MacBook Pro 16” Mockups 🔥

– in 4 materials (clay versions included)

– 12 scenes

– 48 MacBook Pro 16″ mockups

– 6000 x 4500 px

C
chrisjbirchall
Dec 11, 2006
It’s the nature of the beast I’m afraid. You get smoother gradients when you work on 16 bit (per channel) files – but then you need to convert to 8 bit to print them!

The best way to deal with banding in gradients is to add noise. Experiment with the amount. Usually just enough to give the same effect of film grain will be enough to fix it.

Chris.
CC
Chris_Cox
Dec 11, 2006
And turn on dithering in the gradient tool (those gradients had it off).
CS
Claudio_Sepulveda
Dec 11, 2006
I’m afraid I am gonna have to look for a new system then. I can’t live witht that for the purpose I use photoshop….
CC
Chris_Cox
Dec 11, 2006
Your system doesn’t have anything to do with it.

Just try turning on dithering in the gradient tool, and if that’s not enough, add some noise.
P
Pipkin
Dec 12, 2006
BTW, in CMYK mode gradients are being produced a little more smoother.
RK
Rob_Keijzer
Dec 12, 2006
I think Pipkin is correct. In some gradients (particularly very shallow ones) I can see the same jumps as the O/P, though much fainter, barely visible.

When I mouse the info over the gradient, the jumps don’t show in the numbers, i.o.w. the info palette sees a smooth gradient.

I also never see the banding in prints.

The funny thing is, when I switch mode to 8 bit the banding on screen dissapears completely.

I think it’s got something to do with the video card handling 16 bit colour channels (if it "handles" them at all).

My screen is a CRT calibrated/profiled monthly wit a GMB Eye1 Display-2.

All in all the anomaly is so faint here that it’s easy to live with, especially since it nowhere in the image.

Rob
JJ
John Joslin
Dec 12, 2006
Some people can’t remember when what you saw on the screen was nothing like what came out of the printer.

WYSIWYG is still not perfect and never will be!

The monitor is always approximating.
CS
Claudio_Sepulveda
Dec 12, 2006
The thing is that it dosent happen only with the gradient tool but also with the airbrush. I mostly do painting with photoshop so it dosent mather to me if the airbrush/gradiant tool do that. We don’t use it very often with digital painting. However, when you paint black area it make some nasty pixel. Like Rob said,handling the pixel in some other bits.

I changed my graphic card and the problem was obvious still.

The canvas (while painting black) is some sort of wetty and can make some green/purple/yellow pixel.

As you can see here.
<http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41/clos3d/tst.jpg>

I found out that painting with 16bits image is less obvious. But again, not all photoshop option are available when in 16bits.

My dither in color correction is on and the pixel doubling is on. Maybe my eyes changed and I can’t stop seeing it, i don’t know. But I remember that even on a LCD the airbrush was smooth enough to not see edges.
MV
Mathias_Vejerslev
Dec 12, 2006
pixel doubling is on

Why?
CC
Chris_Cox
Dec 12, 2006
Turn off pixel doubling.

And it looks like you’ve tried to load an extreme correction LUT to your video card, and that is affecting your display in Photoshop.
CS
Claudio_Sepulveda
Dec 12, 2006
Okay, Pixel doubling is off. Problem is still there however. Like I said i formated my HD and changed my graphic card to the old one I had. So I was maybe thinking it is something else. I have no clue now. But because some people here trying to help I’ve been looking into the issue again.

Painting in black color does that.
<http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41/clos3d/pixel.jpg>

I suggest that you save the image and Zoom in. What I did is paint in black on a blue/green background and then Level it up to make it more obvious. It does that with EVERY brush. My Graphic card is up to date and I havent loaded any color correction.

If someone have a clue, I am open to everything to solve this mystery.

Thanks
B
Bernie
Dec 13, 2006
How are you painting it exactly? With a brush? Is it hard or soft? With the pencil? With the paint bucket?
CS
Claudio_Sepulveda
Dec 13, 2006
<http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41/clos3d/brush.jpg> this is my brush.

I use a wacom yes. Is a HardBrush with pen pressure.
M
martiin
Jan 9, 2007
Greetings, i have the same problem. If i create a black-to-white horizontal dithered gradient in photoshop, it shows banded. If i save this file, ant check it in Gimp, AcdSee, CompuPic or in a browser, the gradient looks perfect.

Any idea?
C
chrisjbirchall
Jan 9, 2007
You need to view it at 100% magnification in Photoshop to get a true pixel view.

Because PS is an image editing application rather than an image viewer interpolating the screen view to show "smooth and sharp" at other magnifications (which is what these other programs are doing) would turn editing into a guessing game.
R
ruettger
Jan 10, 2007
Hi Martin,

you are drawing a gradient on a layer in your image and you want to create a smoother blend with less banding? Select ‘Dither’ from the options bar!

Greetings, Michael


Webmaster-Onlineforum, Community zu Bücher von Rüttger http://www.ruettger-mediendesign.de/phpbb2/
K
kkulpa5
Jan 10, 2007
Hey Dude! We’re getting the Banding back together!

You know what the problem is. It’s Photoshop — nothing else. Sure, you can add noise or a grain effect to eliminate the banding, but is that what you want for your final artwork? Adobe needs to do something about this problem.

Optimal performance. The software should work right out of the box not needing the settings "customized" to work better. I worked as a prepress artist for a major printer and if we ever came across this type of banding in a file we would halt the entire job, alert the design firm and request a new file. We would also encourage them to do their gradient treatments in Photoshop. That was then, but lately that’s not the answer to the problem either.

Basically what I’m trying to say is why should we have to just deal with it? This issue has plagued our designers for the last two years and it’s annoying the hell out of us. It like this:

If you had your car repainted and you noticed runs in the paint, do you feel it’s your responsibility to fix the problem or should the body shop fix it? That’s what I thought. Don’t go throwing out your monitors or HDs. That’s not the problem. It’s the software.
B
Bernie
Jan 10, 2007
Sure, you can add noise or a grain effect to eliminate the banding, but is that what you want for your final artwork?

In my case, yes
JR
John_R_Nielsen
Jan 10, 2007
Post #2
P
PeterK.
Jan 10, 2007
to kkulpa5:
It’s not the software. It’s either a user’s problem not knowing how to get the best results from the software, inferior hardware, or not employing workarounds for the fundamental computing problem that is the cause of banding.
TL
Tim_Lookingbill
Jan 10, 2007
It’s a precision issue between Photoshop and the video card vLUT loaded in the profile made by the calibrator. The TRC correction curves built into precisely made monitor profiles reveal too much info that noise like Chris suggests can hide. It’s the price we pay for WYSIWYG color precision.

The more the profile curves have to correct for the quality of the display’s inprecision and color cast the more banding will be seen. I get this subtle banding as well on my CRT and calibrate using EyeOne Display made profile.

I found a little known Mac app called Profile Gamma Tagger found at Chromix that clears these precisely made TRC RGB gamma correction curves from the profile vcgt tag and replaces them with a straight ramp shaped curve for each RGB channel while keeping the 2.2 gamma number and XYZ color descriptors for PS to use to adjust CM previews.

This cleared gamma LUT is the state all calibrators measure a display from and is where users should be setting their brightness, contrast and color cast to get the display as close as possible to the target of 2.2 gamma and 6500K.

The next time you calibrate your display look for the section usually at the time right after the puck is calibrated where the screen goes darker/lighter and changes color cast. That’s the true native state of your display. The bigger the change from the calibrator’s idea of perfect target conditions, the bigger the correction the calibrator builds into the profile TRC curves, thus the more banding occurs in CM previews.

When I load this cleared ramped shaped TRC vLUT version of my EyeOne display profile on my system, my neutral gray desktop shifts to carbon green and when I switch back to Photoshop this subtle banding in both the airbrush rendering and gradient disappears. I have to ask myself do I want a greenish neutral gray and no banding or a truely neutral display and subtle banding.

Hey! I paid $180 for the EyeOne Display I guess I’ll stick with the subtle banding or try to find a display with a perfect native state that closely matches what the EyeOne thinks is perfect 2.2 gamma and 6500K.

MacBook Pro 16” Mockups 🔥

– in 4 materials (clay versions included)

– 12 scenes

– 48 MacBook Pro 16″ mockups

– 6000 x 4500 px

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