How to Eliminate Banding in Photoshop

What is Color Banding?

Working on your images in Photoshop, you might have experience the situation where you see the image develops stripes or bands of color where they should be a seamless graduation of color. This problem is common in smooth gradients like skies and can surely destroy the most beautiful picture. So, let’s figure out how to fix color banding in Photoshop.

Quick way to learn how to remove color banding in Photoshop

It is better to avoid the banding issue in photo at the moment of capture. But, sometimes you may make a mistake in the field or you already have compressed images with no additional exposures. So here is a simple solution to eliminate color banding if it has already occurred.

Solution 1: For 16-bit image files

If you are experiencing banding issue with a 16-bit photo file when you are saving or compressing the file, then the only way to fix it is to add noise. Here’s the guide to fix color banding in Photoshop effectively.

• Create a new layer and filled with 50% gray by clicking Control+Shift+N
• Add noise to this layer by selecting Filter->Noise->Add Noise.
• Mask out this layer from the image part that don’t have banding issues, so it’s completely free from noise.

Solution 2: For 8-bit image files

If your image is 8-bit, then the easier way is to mitigate banding. Here’s how to get rid of banding in Photoshop effectively:

• Choose the part of the image that suffers from banding issue and create a new layer by clicking Control+J.
• Make all other layers invisible and click appropriate icon in Layers pallet to lock transparent pixels in newly created layer.
• Go to Filter->Filter Gallery, then select Brush Strokes group and click Spatter.
• Adjust Spray Radius to max value and smoothness all the way down, then click OK.

After following the above steps, you can see color banding has dissipated and now turn all the layers you want. In case, if color banding problem still exists in Photoshop file, then it clearly indicates that the file is corrupted.

What actions to be taken to fix color banding in Photoshop?

If you have no idea about how to open corrupted Photoshop file, then make use of Remo Repair PSD tool. The software safely fixes all kind of corruption issues with any type of Photoshop file including PSD/ PDD. Here is the step-by-step instructions:

• Get Remo Repair PSD: Login to computer as administrator, then download, install and run the software.
• Click Browse icon: Select Photoshop file that has to be fixed.
• Click Repair button: It quickly starts fixing the selected file that is having issues and extracts contents from the corrupted image file, repairs it and save as a new healthy file.
• Preview and save the file: Once the photo file is repaired, preview it and browse the destination location to save it.