Houston, we have a problem: I just started noticing this. Look at the sky. I have rings appearing in it. I just started to notice this in pp the other day. At first I thought it was...

tainkc Loc: Kansas City

I just started noticing this. Look at the sky. I have rings appearing in it. I just started to notice this in pp the other day. At first I thought it was perhaps the lens, but it does it on a variety of lenses.

I have 2 post processing programs; lightroom 4.1 & photoshop cs6. When I upload, I direct my photos to lightroom and start from there. Then I go to cs6 for finishing touches. oh, I should mention that I do a lot of this type of shooting in fine jpeg. So let's leave it at that.

Many times I do not have to do a thing in cs6, but I always go there anyway and when I finish, I save the photos to a folder.

When I open photos in lightroom, this problem is not there. Everything is just fine. This only happens when I go to cs6 and there it shows up. When I save the photo, it is still there when I wish to view it. And of course, it is showing up here also.

My settings have not changed at all as near as I can tell. If I export the photo from lightroom to a folder without going through cs6, there is no problem. This is very annoying. Any ideas?

Bobber Loc: Fredericksburg, Texas

I would be suspicious of what is happening to the data in one or the other processing softwares. The arcs are roughly following the shape of the balloon top. I have seen something reminiscent of this in over processed images where a clear sky area does not hide the distortions with distracting details. Perhaps resampling or what ever takes place in rendering image data, as it is saved from one version to another is at play.

tainkc Loc: Kansas City

Bobber wrote:

I would be suspicious of what is happening to the data in one or the other processing softwares. The arcs are roughly following the shape of the balloon top. I have seen something reminiscent of this in over processed images where a clear sky area does not hide the distortions with distracting details. Perhaps resampling or what ever takes place in rendering image data, as it is saved from one version to another is at play.

Yeah, I don't know. They are definitely not over processed. Like I said, this just started happening and I have done some really heavy processing in the past with no problem. Let's see what others have to say. Thanks for giving it a look.

tainkc Loc: Kansas City

One more thing. This is happening under different lighting conditions. This is how I first noticed it. I made a post here the other day with an evening sky that was dark. Very noticeable.

RonnWinn

Tainkc,
I think the problem is called "banding". From what I can learn, it's caused by converting your shot from 16-bit jpeg to 8-bit jpeg in post-processing. Or maybe it's the other way 'round, can't be sure... In any case, from what I've read the problem isn't there in RAW because RAW is not a jpeg. It happens in the calculations your PP software does - one site said the colors are 1 byte (maybe bit) apart and that causes enough difference in your color table to show up.
Pretty much a rough explanation, I know, but it got my curiosity up and thought I'd share what I found. Probably someone else out there in UHH-land who can express it a whole lot better.

tainkc Loc: Kansas City

RonnWinn wrote:

Tainkc, br I think the problem is called "ban... (show quote)

Thanks for your input. I too have heard of this. This is going to force me to look at my 8-16 bit conversion tables. I have not looked at that yet. Maybe I have hit a key some where that threw this into a spin. I have done similar things before. I am even going to look in my camera. I may have inadvertently changed a setting in there. If this is indeed the problem, I have to figure out how or where to fix it. Always something.

tainkc Loc: Kansas City

Observation: I can not seem to match anything up between lightroom and cs6 to alleviate the problem yet.

However, if I save the file as a jpeg at about 1 meg in size, the problem goes away. Normally I save my files at around 300kb. Hmmm....

This seems more like a band aid than an actual fix.

English_Wolf Loc: Near Pensacola, FL

For an image to reach this small size the compression is really high. Under normal circumstance we would not see any banding but in large area of similar colors the compression ALSO compresses the number of colors in the image. The switch from one shade to another is much sharper, creating the banding.

Banding also comes from transforming color depth from 24 to 8 bits (native capture is likely 12 bits by the way, 14 bits max). This is an in camera process since you make a point of typing: "I do a lot of this type of shooting in fine jpeg"

What comes out of your camera is either too compressed to save space or you create trouble when using the software and saving. Note that this is not a problem created by saving the same file over and over.

Solution? Select the least compression ratio on camera and tweak the compression in the software.

Other solution: check if there is a CMOS/software update for your camera.

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

No other answers needed. English Wolf is correct.

But I know many others will answer anyway. :-)

tainkc Loc: Kansas City

English_Wolf wrote:

For an image to reach this small size the compress... (show quote)

Oh, wow! He's alive!. Thanks, English Wolf. Yeah, I am going to check my camera settings. Since I tried all combinations and permutations both singularly and between the two programs in regards to mixing and match color bit depth with no success, I will need to see if I did something within the camera. You also rang a bell in my head when you mentioned color bit depth for we went over this extensively in a photography class a couple of years ago. I will check my notes. Thank you.

tainkc Loc: Kansas City

CaptainC wrote:

No other answers needed. English Wolf is correct.

But I know many others will answer anyway. :-)

Yep. he is correct. I was having a brain fart; probably from being over tired. I will fix this for next time. Right now I have an even bigger problem - melted hard candy on my blue jeans in a bad spot. I just noticed that I am kind of stuck to my leather chair and some of the candy is stuck on the leather also. grandkids.

RMM Loc: Suburban New York

The image you uploaded is only 410 KB, and expanded into a 45.9 MB image. That small JPEG is the culprit. If that's what came out of the camera, you've set your resolution way too low. Otherwise, it's a post-processing glitch, and if you have the original and save it down to a larger file (3-4 MB), I bet the effect will be gone. (Just a detail added to English_Wolf's explanation, NOT something from an alternative dimension.)

tainkc Loc: Kansas City

RMM wrote:

The image you uploaded is only 410 KB, and expanded into a 45.9 MB image. That small JPEG is the culprit. If that's what came out of the camera, you've set your resolution way too low. Otherwise, it's a post-processing glitch, and if you have the original and save it down to a larger file (3-4 MB), I bet the effect will be gone. (Just a detail added to English_Wolf's explanation, NOT something from an alternative dimension.)

Thanks, Rmm. This is what I concluded also. I need to check my camera settings because I may have changed something by accident. Everything else looks fine. And as you suggested, I started playing with file size in the preview when saving a pic. I could see the banding. When I bumped the file size up, the banding went away. This told me to look hard at the camera because the small file sizes that I normally use were never a problem before. I verified this by looking up older photos that were similar and they were just fine.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Found this in the Photoshop help lookups.

http://www.photoshopgurus.com/forum/quick-tips-techniques/121-succesfully-removing-banding.html

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

tainkc wrote:

quote=Bobber I would be suspicious of what is hap... (show quote)

I am not saying that this is what is happening but it does look to be a problem with color depth... you will see this in 8bit color more so than in 16 bit color as 8 bit cannot handle a smooth gradient... If you can shoot some raw picts and see if the problem disappears.