I’m new to PhotoLab so apologies if if this is user error.
I have version 3.1.0, camera is an EOS R. I use Photolab for basic adjustments before exporting 16bit Tiff to Photoshop in AdobeRGB. When using Auto Vignetting with the Optics Module I’m getting banding in flatish grey skies (the only thing I’ve noticed it with so far). It’s not immediately visible to my eyes but when applying more extreme edits it becomes very apparent. Whacking up ClearView Plus in PhotoLab can show it clearly. The problem seems to disappear when using manual (Intensity 50, Middle 50 is all I’ve really checked it on so far). So far I’ve noticed it using a Canon RF 24-105mm and a Canon EF 100-400mm IS II. Any ideas?
I am using PRIME but have everything turned off except Vignetting and ClearView Plus. The banding is apparent on jpg exported from Photoshop when viewed on my phone. Will attempt to upload the screenshots…
Thanks for posting that. Zoomed in, I can see concentric circles that span the entire image. I’m guessing this is a lens artifact that shows up as banding when you process the flat background heavily with microcontrast and sharpening. If you don’t use PhotoLab to process the RAW, but still apply a lot of adjustment to microcontrast, does the banding not occur? (Clearview increases microcontrast and lowers midtones, among other things, to bring out fine details.)
I’ve noticed this with 2 lenses so far so it isn’t lens specific, not to mention that these are Canon “L” lenses so any quality issues would have been noticed by now. The concentric circles do not show when using ACR/Lightroom with Dehaze up to the max and, as said, seems to disappear when setting vignetting manually in Photolab.
Yes… I use Hoya Pro1 Digital UV filters on all my lenses. If it were the filters causing the problem then it would obviously show in Lightroom/ACR. I have only started seeing this banding since using Photolab.
Not necessarily, IMO. Different kinds of image processing will accentuate or mask certain problems like this. I suppose the DxO lens correction modules could be to blame. Having the RAW file(s) to play with using different software will help determine that more precisely. Meanwhile, the phenomenon you’re seeing resembles what’s called “Newton’s rings.” And UV filters are known to cause it.
Many thanks for your knowledge and help. I hope that someone at DxO can advise as this is one of those annoying things that will mean I’ll have to check every photo individually. In the mean time maybe I’ll download a trial of Capture One and see how that does. Thanks again.
No. I first noticed it with my usual filters/corrections on so turned them all off and then on one by one until I found the culprit. I just tried it with just Vignetting, ClearView and Distortion on and it’s still there.
Looks like I can reproduce similar effects with the following settings.
No Correction
add DxO Clear View 100%
add micro contrast 100%
add fine contrast 100%
The lines I get change with vignetting settings, but the orientation does not change with it. In some of my tests, the direction of the lines are not circular. See attached examples:
Note: No circular lines… Independent of vign. settings. I can also get the lines in Lightroom.
I suppose that this image just exposes variations due to weather conditions.
Check upper left corner - vignetting correction on - cannot produce it in Lightroom.
My guess is that the effect is “natural” due to overdoing things.
Raising microcontrast etc. can introduce step effects. I’ve seen an example of it a few years ago but cannot find the source of the demo showing a gradient changing to steps in Photoshop…
Note: Exaples from DPL2, similar in DPL3, both on macOS Mojave
Thank you for bothering to look at this. While I understand and accept these are extreme conditions and might accept “You should have got the exposure correct in the first place”, one of the great benefits of digital photography (and the dynamic range that modern sensors offer) is being able to recover otherwise unusable shots etc etc. I also accept that processing photos in this way will emphasise any defects present. However, in my case, I have simply enabled vignetting and used ClearView to the max to highlight a problem seemingly introduced by PhotoLab. This problem is still there, although less obviously, at more sensible settings (such as bringing out a bit of interest in an otherwise bland sky). It does appear that PhotoLab is creating this vignetting banding (and I do understand the problem with gradients and banding) where Lightroom/ACR does not.
I would appreciate it greatly if someone at DxO could look at this and see if there’s a solution.
I note that the OP has turned everything off except vignetting and ClearView. In my experience, Clear View is a relatively extreme correction, even at small settings. I find if I export an image to Photoshop/ACR or to Lightroom after using ClearView, any further work is likely to show up halos. This is especially true if the image is output as TIFF rather than DNG, as a tiff file has all the pixel-level changes “baked in”. While I’m not suggesting that Clearview has definitely caused these subtle circular bands, it would be better for the OP to try outputting the image without using Clearview, if he intends to keep working on it in another software package.
From another thread (about order of corrections), I note that vignetting correction is applied before demosaicing, and Clearview as one of the last after demosaicing. This would be another reason to turn off Clearview for the purposes of testing, so that you just have a basic raw conversion to work on subsequently. Also I would advise not using microcontrast if you intend to process further.
The banding happens with Auto Vignetting turned on and ClearView off. I used ClearView to highlight the problem. It occurs in all export formats from PhotoLab and I can see it, with only Auto Vignetting on, in PhotoLab. Obviously when going on to edit in another program any sort of increase in microcontrast adjustment only makes the problem worse.
Unless I’ve missed something, this does look like an issue with the Auto Vignetting in PhotoLab.
Could you, please, provide us with some of the images+sidecars for the investigation? Please, upload them to upload.dxo.com under your forum name instead of “support ticket number” and let me know when ready.
No matter what the software, an 8bit file can produce banding because there are simply not enough levels of tonality to represent smooth transitions. A 16bit file can represent 65,536 levels but an 8bit file can only represent 256.
