uneven gradations on my monitor, adding vignettes

[andrew_laverghetta1]

<p>Hello!<br>

I'm writing to see if anybody knows the solution to my problem. I photographed a landscape with a decently bright sky and I wished to add a vignette to redirect the attention to the subject. My problem is when I add this vignette, either by adobe camera raw, or painting it in on another layer with a dark color (blackish) and adjusting opacity. Now, what happens when I have been doing this, is a breakdown in the gradation between the dark corners and the lighter center of the frame. I don't have an example at the moment because I was just too disgusted at it. Do you think this is just a limitation of the monitor? That is to say, if I sent this to the printers, do you think it would get worked out when ink/light hits the paper? Is there any other way to get around this? Thanks!<br>

Andrew</p>

[tom_mann1]

<p>Can you post a copy of the image? It would help greatly.</p>

<p>Tom M</p>

[andrew_laverghetta1]

<p><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v417/laverghetta/Untitled_Panorama1-copy.jpg" alt="" width="720" height="360" /><br>

I'm not sure how it looks on here...on my screen, in the corners, I can see what I might describe as lines of noise as it goes from the darkest section of the corner to the lighter sky closer to the center of the frame. We'll see how it posts. I'll upload a larger file if I need to with some more evident marks.<br>

I understand that darkening the photo may introduce noise, but I even add a blank layer and use the brush tool with black in the corners to create a similar look and it seems even worse. </p>

[andrew_laverghetta1]

<p>This the same basic photo, but a crop from the larger version. In this particular version, I used the brush tool at the largest size to paint in a black vignette, and then reduced the opacity of that particular new and otherwise black layer. As I said, there is some kind of unevenness going from the darkest corner to the lighter sections.<br>

Will this just sort itself out when printed or will it persist? This is why I like film and darkroom printing...you don't run into this kind of digital breakdown.</p>

<p><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v417/laverghetta/vignettepaintingproblems.jpg" alt="" width="691" height="720" /></p>

[chip]

<p>Could be an issue with some part of your display system. What kind of computer, display card and monitor are you using? Many display cards and LCD monitors even when configured correctly do not have the level of hardware required to support smooth gradation between digitally very similar tone values. With a high-end PC or MAC display this is less an issue but the cost is still fairly high when compared to commodity priced display cards and LCD monitors. <br>

HTH! </p>

[andrew_laverghetta1]

<p>Chip, that's what I was thinking, or at least hoping. I'm using a Dell Studio XPS with a fairly standard 24" widescreen LCD display. It's been calibrated recently but I don't see that as having something to do with this, just something to mention. Graphics card is some kind of 512mb card like ati radeon 4670 or something like that. Not incredibly advanced or awesome.</p>

<p>Something else that might help, I use the largest brush on these vignettes, I set the opacity and flow to about 50%, and I notice that as I darken the corner (on the new and blank layer) that I'm getting some weird banding where the gradation happens. It reminds me of newtons rings when you have two transparent materials together, like when you have film in a glass negative holder, or also when you scan film. I'm thinking I might spring a few bucks and get a print made. Made at walmart to start so I don't have to pay for shipping.</p>