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One of the things you’ll notice if you’re a photographer, videographer, or motion graphics designer is color-banding artifacts when converting your work to 8-bit web formats. This happens because each color of an 8-bit image only has a color range of 256 values. So, say you have an orange sunset that shifts into purple or black. There might not be a large enough range of colors between those two shades to create a smooth transition between them.
This is why you often don’t notice these things in Lightroom, but they appear when you export to JPEG or H264 for the web. There are a few ways to fix this.
Fixing Color Banding in Photos and Video
Banding often occurs in photography when you apply too much noise reduction. Noise can cause a lot of variation of color that will add extra information outside the single shade 256 range. So, if you notice banding, a simple fix might be to dial back your grain reduction.
This leads to the next trick. You can add grain back in. I usually do this. Adding grain helps break up the color, so it’s not so smooth in the areas of the banding.
– The last trick I’ll use involves adding a very light gradient of a different color. This introduces extra colors to that single colors 256 range, increasing the possible values of color the image can now have. It’s straightforward to do on a sunset. In Lightroom, you can apply the Gradient Filter. In After Effects or Photoshop, several ways to add color gradients exist. You can use a four-point gradient set to 2-5%. Or even a simple ramp set to a very low value. Just remember to set the value as low as you can until the banding disappears.
Clear Skies In Malibu
This was taken at Matador Beach in Malibu, California. Shot with the 5Dmkii and the 24-70mm f2.8L USM. One thing I’ve learned when shooting at beaches like this (since I’ve been doing it a lot) is that The longer you have your lens out, the more haze covers the glass from the salty air. I noticed this one night while shooting with my 40mm f2.8. After about 45 minutes of using this lens, my images were getting more bloomy from the film that was forming on the UV filter. It actually created a rather nice effect. It happened slightly in the image below. To avoid it, you really have to clean your glass constantly.
