I'm usually at the wildlife forum, but once in a while find opportunities to shoot these. Can anyone help tell me why I'm getting this "banding" effect in this photo? Thanks in advance!

Isn't that a compression artefact (from compressing to JPEG)?

m00g wrote:
Isn't that a compression artefact (from compressing to JPEG)?

I think so, I just wanted to know if there was a technique to minimize it.

You'll get the banding if you tried to darken the skies too far, especially if done in 8 bit, v 16 bit.
Cool silhouettes, regardless.

Barry

bshamilton wrote:
You'll get the banding if you tried to darken the skies too far, especially if done in 8 bit, v 16 bit.
Cool silhouettes, regardless.

Barry

Many thanks Barry. That's exactly what I wanted to know!

Hey Conrad,

Cool shot here! Very nicely done, and thanks for dropping in and visiting us!

Barry hit it right on the head, you really have to watch that. One thing you can do to help reduce it after the fact with a sky like this that has no detail, is to use your noise reducing software like Noiseware on it's highest setting. Just use a layer mask so that it is only affecting the sky. Also, you could use a layer with high Gaussian Blur, that again you blend in over just the sky area.

Jim

JimFox wrote:
Hey Conrad,

Cool shot here! Very nicely done, and thanks for dropping in and visiting us!

Barry hit it right on the head, you really have to watch that. One thing you can do to help reduce it after the fact with a sky like this that has no detail, is to use your noise reducing software like Noiseware on it's highest setting. Just use a layer mask so that it is only affecting the sky. Also, you could use a layer with high Gaussian Blur, that again you blend in over just the sky area.

Jim

Wow... I feel humbled. I'm pretty new to landscape processing and am greatful for your advice Jim! Many many thanks!