What is causing this?

[joemig]

<p>This is a problem I have been having consistently for a long time. It happens in virtually every photo I take, anywhere where there is a fade to black. At some point, the smooth transition stops, and I get a horrible, noisy kind of posterization. This happens in photos that are bright, that are dark, taken inside or out. Anyplace where there is a transition to black. Here is an :admittedly extreme) example:<br>

http://www.joemig.com/img/s12/v184/p946886084-3.jpg<br>

<br />Also, there is a kind of color noise, or blocking present. Some of this is due to jpg conversion, but I see the banding, or posterization even in raw files. I'm actually not sure what the correct term is for this, so I've had trouble looking up information on it. <br>

I just find it almost impossble to get smooth blacks. For a while, I thought it was my D300 somehow at fault. But I now have a D7100 and I get the same issue. Obviously, I'm doing something wrong. Any help would be appreciated.<br>

This is the entire photo, just to show it in context:<br>

<img src="http://www.joemig.com/img/s12/v177/p1030155398-3.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="450" /></p>

[Stock-Photos]

<p>I suspect your computer / video card is not running at the max number of colors. I don't see noise or banding in the enlarged section.</p>

[cabbiinc]

<p>What is your editing routine. I see banding, although not obvious. But it would bug me if I were the one doing the editing. What colorspace do you work in?</p>

[joemig]

<p>The video card is at 32 bit color, the highest it goes. Color space is RGB 8-bit in photoshop. The camera is shooting using adobe RGB.<br>

So, you don't see the same huge black spot that I do? It would be nice to think that it's a display issue and that it's not actually 'in' the image.<br>

Looking at this info now, I'm wondering if the 8 bit in photoshop might be the problem? I can't remember where I read this, but I had thought that photoshop wouldn't do many functions at higher than 8 bit. </p>

[colin_mattson1]

<blockquote>

<p>I can't remember where I read this, but I had thought that photoshop wouldn't do many functions at higher than 8 bit.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>A little over a decade ago, that would have been true. The move to 16bpc support started ages ago and is basically done with today. We're now at the point now where <em>most</em> functions will even work in 32bpc. That this kind of information never dies is a liability of the information age.</p>

<p>Unless you're rocking an extremely old version of Photoshop (or a woefully underpowered computer—the extra overhead does demand a bit of added grunt), 16 bit is perfectly fine. It's the golden age and the water's fine. Come on in! ;)</p>

<p>Like Mssrs. Harrington and Ferrel, I don't see anything out of the ordinary in your crop.</p>

<p>To throw another possibility out there, it could be a bad monitor profile, assuming you've profiled your monitor.</p>

[greg_campbell1]

No blob on my ancient CRT. I can even do an extreme curve stretch and not see any banding or blocky shapes.

 

Try assigning a different color profile to your monitor.

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<p>I see a triangle shaped 0,0,0RGB black blob in the shadow of the leg in both Safari and Firefox color managed browsers. The next level is 8,8,8RGB which means the black is posterized.</p>

<p>What's odd is downloading the image to my desktop and opening in Photoshop shows a smooth transition between black but maxing out to 3RGB gray instead of the hard edge seen in the browser. The image has an embedded sRGB profile.</p>

<p>Also you may have plumbed the dynamic range for black level of that camera's jpeg rendering capabilities. How does a Raw version of the shot show the transition out of black?</p>

<p>I'm having to assume you've posted a jpeg straight from the camera and not shooting Raw of course.</p>

[john_wheeler6]

<p>I agree with Greg. I have had a very similar issue when I calibrated and profiled my monitor and ended up with a bad profile. I am not familiar with which OS you have yet I examined the monitor ICC profile and and the ICC tone response curve was jagged and not smooth. In my case I discovered that the calibration puck was not tightly held against the monitor and produce a bad profile. I leaned back the monitor a bit so I ended up with a better seal with the monitor and created a new profile. Problem was then gone.<br>

Not sure this is your issue yet hope it helps.</p>

[howard_m]

<p>you should google -> rgb shadow test images<br>

and see if it's the camera or the video/monitor. You may need/want to tweak the gamma of the calibration a bit.</p>

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<p>Howard, I was wondering if I should've chosen native gamma in the Colormunki Display software during calibration/profiling instead of choosing 2.2 gamma.</p>

<p>Something has to explain the differences between what I'm seeing of the OP's cropped sample in my browser and the downloaded version in Photoshop which I'm surmising may have something to do with the slope angle shape of the gamma curve coming out of absolute black being interpreted differently between both color managed image viewing apps. Being on a Mac system may also be muddling things. Not sure.</p>

<p>I did the black level Photoshop test assigning my custom display profile and can see a difference between 0,0,0RGB black and 1,1,1RGB gray.</p>

[Uhooru]

<p>I don't see it on a retina screen nor do I see any banding except some horizontal marks on the light wall to the left and some vertical on the top of the wall on the right. However, I don't think its banding, it stops and starts in a way to suggest that its just part of the screen/wall.</p>

[digitaldog]

<blockquote>

<p>Color space is RGB 8-bit in photoshop. The camera is shooting using adobe RGB.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>So these are JPEGs? That's one major possible cause. If you see banding, you first have to determine if it's in the data or a result of the display. If you see this on high bit data from raw, it's very likely a display issue. </p>

[joemig]

<p>Sorry, no these are from RAW files. But I can see the same issue in both lightroom and photoshop. It amazes me that all of you don't see it, on my monitor, the shadow in her skirt is such a jagged black hole that I'm surprised I don't see the enterprise getting sucked down it. It must be a monitor calibration issue, I'll have to check into that further.</p>

[joemig]

<p>btw, I did google: rgb shadow test images, and they all look fine. I get a smooth transition all the way to 0,0,0 black, I can see all the gradations I'm supposed to be able to see etc. The problem then has to be something I have set wrong in photoshop? Pushing too hard in shadows or something? I don't know... annoying. Anyway, thanks for the help...</p>