Why do I get bands in the sky? Attaching photo.

[aspherical]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

I got these with my Nikon as well.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[Ken Abrahams]

Aspherical, are the cameras creating this banding set to produce JPG's? 

[aspherical]

I thought I was shooting DNG. Maybe not. I just checked: I shot it DNG.

 

Edited October 2, 2023 by aspherical

[tedd]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_banding

[tedd]

Do the DNG's look like this or just your jpeg output? You may have the output quality set too low.

[BlackDoc]

Most of all the final compression via post processing - by using higher resolution you should get rid of this.

 

[Ken Abrahams]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

If you have set photoshop to handle files as tiff files when opened you shouldn't get any banding 

[pop]

No one can say where those bands come from. You didn't give us any hints as to how you made this small JPG file from your DNG file. At a guess I would think that you are seeing a low resolution low quality preview image in your DNG file.

[jaapv]

This is definitely a postprocessing error.
It looks like an image processed in Photoshop after opening in ACR in 8 bits.The effect is called posterization (*). The remedy is to use 16 bits in postprocessing (and AdobeRGB colour space). You should set  16-bit Adobe RGB as default in ACR by clicking on the blue link under the image.
Only convert (if needed for output) to 8 bit colour depth at the very end. 
Most other postprocessing programs like Lightroom handle this automatically. In that case there are postprocessing errors like overuse of clarity, dehaze, or too much compression. (**)
It can be fixed, but that takes some work (***)

(*) https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/posterization.htm

(**) https://expertphotography.com/color-banding/

(***) https://photographylife.com/what-is-color-banding-and-how-to-fix-it

Basically the problem is that the image file contains too few colour levels to produce a smooth gradient. 8 bits is borderline as there are only 256 levels in each colour. As soon as you start editing you will introduce banding in smooth gradients like a blue sky.

[pop]

1 hour ago, jaapv said:

8 bits is borderline

Not really. I often use JPEG when the demands on image quality are not very high, and I never ever get any posterization. I agree, however, that 8 bits are not enough for heavy post processing, but in those cases the image has most likely been poorly exposed.

[jaapv]

Yes, but you would not process a JPG extensively The OP asked about DNGs. 

[aspherical]

Thank you all for these responses. I now have something to work with.

[jaapv]

When doing so note that some monitors, especially non-calibrated ones, can show banding that won’t be present in the final file. 

[George Collier]

I have found everything that jaapv said to be true, even with Black & White and scanning from negs. In 35mm B&W images, the grain will often create enough interference to prevent banding (or stepping) created by gradual changes in value which are not supported by the available system levels in 8 bit. In 4x5 scanning, classic winter skies often have banding with less than 16bit files. It's more about bit depth than resolution.

[Stuart Richardson]

I agree with Tedd. I suspect this is an export issue...make sure the jpeg quality setting is at least 60-80. See if you still get it when you export to a tiff, or to a 100 quality jpeg. Also, to eliminate variables, don't use any presets or unusual profiles. Just stick to Adobe Standard or Abobe Color (if you are using Adobe). If you are using a third party editor, it could be that as well, if it is not well made enough.