Hi Andrea, in case you missed it, I mentioned in the other thread that the method I described works perfectly for me in current version of Photoshop, so check how you are creating the gradient….Are you using the gradient tool in Photoshop?
If you’re blurring using any of the blurring filters, they will create wonderful amounts of posterization, which need to be dealt with by adding noise. Perhaps you haven’t added enough noise yet. Try adding it through an inverted luminosity mask. That’ll keep it out of the highlights.
Yeah, what Peter said but there is an easier way (IMHO) to keep it out of highlights; immediately after applying noise, go edit/fade/lighten.
Oh I put up another post because I could not find this one. Here you are. than you …. I think I may have been using photoshop CS1 I like working in it sometimes more than CS2. I will try it in the current version. It did help just not 100%. Thanks so much!
Peter, So your saying that blurring will cause more banding than using a gradient? What about using a selection with a feather of 250 vs a gaussian blur with radius of 250?
Since Peter and I seem to agree on this, I will chime in here and say that that problem with gaussian blur for me is that it creates a pattern like giraffe spots as some kind of strategy to break up the bands, but the blur is only visual, the bands are just as bad from a printers point of view.
Try this, apply a g blur and put a curves adj layer on and put it up to "input 20, output 100" to exaggerate the bands and you will see the pattern.
The same happens with masks, especially with complex or multiple ones. They create little dark islands that print….not a good look!
I raised this issue and similar with Chris Cox but he has not responded except to say that he referred it on to QE or someone like that…
More questions. I have tried the RGB 16 bit gradient… then the noise at about 4. It worked in all the lighter shaded ads but did not work in the very rich royal blue ad I did. It faids from about 80/70/60/80 to 100/89/40/30 to70/50/25/5 and this lightest is about 25/20/11/0
I am having trouble with it. And the noise shows more than the others.
I tried to do the edit/fade or lighten… When i do that my entire layers color turns to white. What am I doing wrong. Can you guide me a little more?
Did you have any luck on the weekend?
I tested with your colours and it worked fine here….I think you could make your life easier with different starting colours. The royal blue looks more like a brown from a printers point of view, that is a lot of yellow to have in a blue, just muddies it up…..
Anyhow, with the original problem, are you applying the noise to a background layer with those colours in it and no masks, and then immediately going to the edit/fade menu and choosing lighten from the drop-down?
If the whole image disappears, I can only think that the gradient has been created using a mask; when using transparency mask, some tools and effects dont recognise the different levels as different colours and have strange effects. They change the transparency of the colour layer rather than the colour itelf.
If you go back to scratch and create a gradient using the gradient tool on a background layer and follow the procedure described, it will work. Don’t use any mask (at least not yet, but ok later on after creating the background). If you do mask later on you might be reintroducing the banding, so be careful.
Phil and Andrea are maybe using different color profiles/modes…
unlikely, it would have to be a pretty wild pair of profiles for one to wipe all the colour out of a rich navy blue on a noise/fade/lighten, noise would not work that way.
I will certainly try these new tricks. I am going out of town for the remainder of the week but when I return I need to finish this ad series. Maybe when I do return I could email you a sample so you could see what my problem is? Or I will figure it out! I do feel that the newspaper ads will be fine. I just think in a magazine you will be able to see the noise? I will just have to keep experimenting and like you said maybe compromise on my colors.
Thanks for all the help!
Noise under about 3 at 300dpi is invisible, at least much less visible than banding, dip your toe in and test. Dont forget the halftone screening will hide the noise to some extent.
