Light Banding - we need an automated solution

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dancook

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So got home at 11pm after 4 1/2 hours of theatre, and I'm processing images for morning.

I reduced shutter from 1/500th whenever I detectable noticeable banding, but even at 1/125th I can still see it - fortunately the client probably won't notice.

I love dxo pureraw for batch noise reduction, what we need is some batch banding removal - I'm not aware of any on the market, but I've certainly not got time to do images one by one.
 
dancook said:
So got home at 11pm after 4 1/2 hours of theatre, and I'm processing images for morning.

I reduced shutter from 1/500th whenever I detectable noticeable banding, but even at 1/125th I can still see it - fortunately the client probably won't notice.

I love dxo pureraw for batch noise reduction, what we need is some batch banding removal - I'm not aware of any on the market, but I've certainly not got time to do images one by one.
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completely agree. with fast action on stage i dont see a solution at present. the best i can do for those moments is close-up wide open which minimizes the impact.
 
TimHughes said:
completely agree. with fast action on stage i dont see a solution at present. the best i can do for those moments is close-up wide open which minimizes the impact.
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Yup and tonight was Fame, a dance musical so really don't want to get caught with too slow a shutter speed.

I was using 24 1.4 / 50 1.2 - shot wide open, and close.
 
dancook said:
Yup and tonight was Fame, a dance musical so really don't want to get caught with too slow a shutter speed.

I was using 24 1.4 / 50 1.2 - shot wide open, and close.
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right, I have a similar strategy, with one venue I'm up close with 35 1.4 and 85 1.4 shooting wide open and for another where close is not possible I'm further back with 3 camera bodies 50 1.4, 85 1.4 and 200 2.0
 
Fuji Dave said:
After reading this I just watched a video by a Wes Perry on Youtube, as last week when I did a jazz gig in Church I had the banding lines in the background on the walls.
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did Wes Perry have a solution?
 
Banding will usually happen due to low bit depth so there isn't enough tonal range to support the colour changes. You've probably got a highly compressed image or a low resolution photo.

Edit in 16bit or 24bit mode if not already and if you have to send 8bit files then work in the above modes and export it as an 8bit.

If you're already editing in 16bit and still getting banding then you can try cutting back on the values you've pushed or add some noise or Gaussian blur and edit only in raw, or the very least, tiff. Also turn off noise compression in camera and if you think you might get banding then you can try to overexpose a little to see if it helps.
 
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Fuju said:
Banding will usually happen due to low bit depth so there isn't enough tonal range to support the colour changes. You've probably got a highly compressed image or a low resolution photo.

Edit in 16bit or 24bit mode if not already and if you have to send 8bit files then work in the above modes and export it as an 8bit.

If you're already editing in 16bit and still getting banding then you can add some noise or Gaussian blur and edit only in raw, or the very least, tiff.
Click to expand...

This is light banding due to, what is probably LEDs

Shooting uncompressed 50MP RAW on a Sony A1, you can see it on the camera LCD - and no amount of manual editing is appropriate for hundreds of files.
 
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Fuji Dave said:
I was using my A7 III on silent shutter, so watched this once I read Dans post.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFGurgO4sf0
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Yes the light banding section is the bane of it..

solution "tell venue to buy better light bulbs" haha

Fortunately my Sony A1 has a very fast electronic read out, so it will perform better than the A7III here - I didn't actually try mechanical shutter last night, but since having the A1 I've not seen improvement by doing so when faced with light banding.
 
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dancook said:
Yes the light banding section is the bane of it..

solution "tell venue to buy better light bulbs" haha

Fortunately my Sony A1 has a very fast electronic read out, so it will perform better than the A7III here - I didn't actually try mechanical shutter last night, but since having the A1 I've not seen improvement by doing so when faced with light banding.
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I doubt there will be a difference. Even for the R5 when banding strikes it happens for both electronic and manual shutters in my experience.
 
dancook said:
This is light banding due to, what is probably LEDs

Shooting uncompressed 50MP RAW on a Sony A1, you can see it on the camera LCD - and no amount of manual editing is appropriate for hundreds of files.
Click to expand...
Ah that's a different type of banding then, that's the light frequency banding. You can switch to a mechanical shutter which might help or try setting your shutter speed to match the flicker frequency.
 
Fuju said:
Ah that's a different type of banding then, that's the light frequency banding. You can switch to a mechanical shutter which might help or try setting your shutter speed to match the flicker frequency.
Click to expand...

and if neither help, maybe a forum post in desperation for a batch post-processing solution :D
 
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