Archive - SONY A7R II
August 24, 2015
I received one of the first of the new SONY A7R II cameras and have been testing it out while in Scotland. The picture quality looks good and I like the small size / light weight of the camera. Not untypical for SONY, the menu system is complicated and difficult to navigate so I thought I’d write down some notes on what I learned about setting it up.
Hardest to understand are the various focus modes and the conditions under which they can be used or not. So I’ll spend some time on this, learning as I go along.
First, the easy stuff.
Basic Set-up.
Aperture Priority shooting mode
Camera Settings #1 Quality - RAW
Camera Settings #2 Drive Mode - Single (for now)
Camera Settings #5 ISO - 100 (native ISO of the camera)
Camera Settings #5 White Balance - Auto
Camera Settings #5 Creative Style - Standard
Some other annoying settings to change immediately:
Custom Settings #2 Auto Review - Off
Custom Settings #3 Pre-AF - Off
OK, now for the basics on focus.
Available focus modes - from the help guide:
(Single-shot AF):
The product locks the focus when the focus adjustment is achieved. Use [Singleshot
AF] when the subject is motionless.
(Automatic AF) (default):
[Single-shot AF] and [Continuous AF] are switched according to the movement of
the subject. When the shutter button is pressed halfway down, the product locks
the focus when it determines that the subject is motionless, or continues to focus
when the subject is in motion.
During continuous shooting, the product automatically shoots with Continuous AF
from the second shot.
(Continuous AF):
The product continues to focus while the shutter button is pressed and held
halfway down. Use this when the subject is in motion.
(DMF):
Allows you to use manual focus and auto focus in combination.
(Manual Focus):
Adjusts the focus manually. If you cannot focus on the intended subject using
auto focus, use manual focus.
While we can cover manual focussing later, for now, the most obvious options are AF-S or AF-C
Now for Focus areas:
Wide (Default):
Focuses automatically on a subject in all ranges of the image.
When you press the shutter button halfway down in still image shooting mode, a
green frame is displayed around the area that is in focus.
Zone:
Select a zone on the monitor on which to focus. A zone consists of nine focus
areas,
and the product automatically selects a focus area on which to focus.
Center:
Focuses automatically on a subject in the center of the image. When used
together with the AF lock function, you can compose the image you want.
Flexible Spot [S,M,L]:
Allows you to move the AF range frame to the desired point on the screen and
focus on an extremely small subject in a narrow area.
On the Flexible Spot shooting screen, you can change the size of the AF range
finder frame by rotating the control wheel.
Expand Flexible Spot:
If the product fails to focus on the single selected point, it uses the focus points
around the flexible spot as the second priority area to achieve focus.
Lock-on AF:
When the shutter button is pressed and held halfway down, the product tracks the
subject within the selected autofocus area. Point the cursor to [Lock-on AF] on the
[Focus Area] setting screen, then select the desired tracking start area using the
left/right sides of the control wheel. You can move the tracking start area to a
desired point by designating the area to be the flexible spot or expand flexible
spot.
On the Flexible Spot shooting screen, you can change the size of the AF range
finder frame by rotating the control wheel.
OK, this where things get a bit trickier. I like to have complete control over where I position the focus target so Wide & Zone Modes are out. Center seems a bit restrictive. So it looks like the viable options are Flexible Spot or Expand Flexible Spot. This latter option seems very similar to Nikon’s “Group Area” mode. Lock-on AF with flexible spot, only works in AF-C mode. Once a subject is focussed, the focus on the subject is tracked as the subject moves around. Could be handy for moving objects. I’ll cover this in more detail later
For now, lets go with Flexible spot-S.
By default, the focus spot can be moved by pressing the C2 custom key then using the front and real dials to move the spot. This feels a bit awkward, so I programmed up the center button on the dial to enable the focus point adjustment (Center Button = Focus Settings).
Up to now, focus has been initiated by half-pressing the shutter button. I like to use the “AF-ON” technique so I programmed the following:
AF/MF button - AF-ON
Custom settings #5 AF w/shutter - Off
With this customization, Focus mode set to AF-C and Focus area set to Flexible Spot -S, I can now press the AF/MF button to achieve focus. Holding the button allows for tracking with the focus point. Releasing the button before shooting is the equivalent of AF-S. To move the focus point, I press the center button then turn to front and rear dials to adjust the focus point. I can reset the focus point to center by hitting the C4 button. I can also rotate the dial to select focus area (Like lock-on AF, if needed). This is not quite as elegant as with the D810 but it will do the job.
Note: Potential custom button settings:
Toggle face detect
AF/MF toggle (Diglloyd - C1)
focus magnifier (Diglloyd - C1 but no need for this since the center button on the control wheel does the same job in MF)
Steady shot on/off (Diglloyd - C3)
Silent mode toggle (C4)
C2 - eye AF (Experiment with Face detect enabled)
Here’s another way to do it:
=================================================
Back-button Focus with AF/MF Hold Button
Set Focus Settings to MF
Custom Key Settings:
Control Wheel - Not Set
AEL Button - AEL toggle
MF/AF Button - AF/MF Hold
C1 - Eye AF
C2 - Lock-on AF
C3 - Aperture Preview (DOF)
Center Button - Focus Settings (double-click for View Magnifier)
Down Button - Focus Area
Left Button - Drive Mode (or set another)
Right Button -Deactivate Monitor (on/off)
Up Button - Display (not configurable)
AEL w/shutter - Off; AF w/shutter - On (works only when default focus mode = AF).
C1 and C2 are useful only with AF, reassign if desired.
To use AF with Shutter instead of back-button focus,Set Focus Settings to AF
Need to set AF/MF Toggle to use View Magnifier.
Notes:
Different Custom Key Settings cannot be assigned to M1 and M2.
Set default Focus Mode to AF for Lock with Shutter, set to MF for back-button focus.
In MF mode, double-click Center for View Magnifier.
Viewfinder DISP Settings: No Display, Histogram, Level, Graphic
Monitor DISP Settings: No display, Histogram, For Viewfinder (or Graphic)
Live View Display Setting Effect ON in general, turn OFF if distracting. If turned off, Shot Result Preview can be assigned to C1 or C2 (or another button).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thoughts on Manual Focussing with SONY A7R II
The World of DSLR’s is an “autofocus” (AF) World. Today’s AF systems are quite accurate and flexible. However, with high megapixel count cameras (36-50Mpixels), even the slightest error can destroy the potential resolution of the image sensor. As a result, many “purists” turn to manual focus to get the optimal sharpness. The best way to do this with a DSLR is to enter LiveView and manually focus at the maximum enlargement of LiveView. This requires mounting the camera on a tripod, taking time to get the optimal focus and (generally) using a remote and m-up to get the best image. Realistically, you only do this in cases where you have the time and equipment (and a static subject) to do it properly. Hence AF is the way to go. With DSLR’s there are complications in getting accurate AF. The lenses need to be calibrated against the camera body using Focal or LensAlign. There’s focus shift considerations and all sorts of other issues that can lead to inaccurate focus. Most people live with it and take multiple shots of a single subject in the hope of getting a “keeper"
Enter mirrorless cameras like the SONY A7R II. This camera has a number of features which eliminate the focus complexity of the DSLR:
1. Autofocus is calculated on the image sensor itself with special, per pixel, pdaf sensors. This eliminates the need to calibrate the lenses against the camera body.
2. The electronic viewfinder (EVF) can show a magnified view of the target image thus allowing for manual focussing, hand-held.
3. Further, a feature known as focus-peaking gives an indication of optimal focus by highlighting the edges with a selected color to show when areas are in or out of focus.
4. In-body image stabalization (IBIS) stabalizes the image, even with lenses which have no VR. This reduces motion blur effects at low shutter speeds
Points 2 & 3 facilitate the ability to do quick and very accurate manual focus, handheld, targeting particular areas of the target image. This is why manual focus purists LOVE the EVF / mirrorless technologies and are pushing Nikon & Canon to incorporate them into their latest, high-end, offerings.
So, I wanted to try and master manual focus techniques on the A7R II. In particular, I have a couple of very high quality Zeiss lenses for my Nikon cameras which are manual focus only which I wanted to try on the SONY camera. For size and weight reasons, I started with the Zeiss 25mm f/2 Distagon attached to the A7R II with a Novoflex F-NEX adapter.
Set-up:
1. I had already assigned custom Button C1 to AF/MF toggle so I pressed it to get into MF mode
2. The dial center button will magnify the EVF image - 1 press for 5X, 2 presses for 12.5X
3. For focus peaking I set the color to yellow (Custom Settings 2)
4. Peaking level depends on the application. For wide aperture, short DOF shots, set the peaking level to High. For narrower aperture, greater DOF shots, set the paeking level to mid or low. I set up a Function Menu item (Lower 2) so I could easily change this setting.
Experience.
I found manual focussing easy, accurate and fun. For landscape shots, especially with apertures f/9 and smaller, manual focussing is preferred since pdaf runs out of gas (on AF-C, back button focus. AF-S is still OK). Here there is little need to magnify. Set the peaking level to low, focus and shoot away. For critical focus, magnify in to the desired area and focus.
For close in, shallow DOF shots (which the Zeiss lens excels at), magnify to the max then focus. It’s amazing how sharp you can get the pictures to come out.
Note: I noticed that DigLloyd suggests, for critical focus, doing focus at maximum aperture then stopping down to the desired aperture. I need to try this. It feels time consuming and only useful for static objects. It should also be noted that this is what the camera does in AF mode (with an autofocus lens). With AF-S, the lens is opened up, focussed, then stopped down to the target aperture. In AF-C, the lens is opened up for first capture of focus. It then stops down to the target and remains stopped down for any subsequent shots in AF-C. If the target aperture is f/9 or smaller, pdaf no longer functions and cdaf takes over resulting in a dramatic slowdown of AF accompanied with lots of “hunting”. Either with manual focus or AF, mirrorless cameras can still be susceptable to lenses with a marked focus shift with aperture.
Some tips on focus peaking from DPreview:
There are a few factors here. These are other people's tips that I have combined to get good results. It helps to shoot raw for most of these:
1. Focal length: longer lenses are easier to use with peaking, since lenses with a lot of depth of field will highlight too much. (Closer subjects are also more precise with peaking)
2. Focus wide open. If you have an issue with focus shift with your lense, then focus as wide open as you dare, then set your desired aperture prior to snapping the picture.
3. Set the peaking level to low. If the issue is that you see too much focus peaking, setting it to low will help.
4. Combine with magnification to precise focus. I use peaking to get quickly into the right ballpark. Then I magnify and adjust. This is particularly necessary when the critical plane of focus doesn't have the highest contrast features. Some subjects just won't light up. If you want to focus on a face, the eyelashes are easy to peak, but you might want to focus more on the eye itself, or some other feature that won't trigger the effect.
For the rest of these tips (hats off to the other people on the forum who first mentioned these) you want to be shooting raw
5. Set the creative mode to B&W and peaking color to yellow or red (I think yellow works best). Since it is raw anyway, you still produce a color image, but this makes it easier to find the peaking color, since it is the only color in the viewfinder. This is important when you are combining with techniques to only see the plane in focus.
6. Play with the sharpening and contrast controls. Once again, it only impacts jpegs and the viewfinder image. But peaking uses the jpeg engine. Reducing the sharpness also causes less of the peaking effect.Adjust till you are getting the right amount.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike’s thoughts on AF performance (with some help from Gary Friedman)
In general, autofocus performance of the A7R II is fast and accurate. To date, I have only concentrated on the AF-S and AF-C modes with the latter being selected for back-button focus (see above). At wide apertures, PDAF seems to work well. However, at small apertures, and AF-C, there can be a lot of focus hunting. This is explaned well in Friedman’s video here:
The illustration shows that the aperture opens when the focus button is pressed for the first time (good for AF-S). However, in AF-C, subsequent tracking focussings are done with the aperture stopped down to the target setting. At f/9 and smaller, even in bright sunlight, there’s not enough light entering the lens for PDAF to work and the camera reverts to CDAF which is much slower and “hunts”. I first noticed this when taking landscape shots at the Grand Canyon. It was a bright day, I wanted to stop down for increased depth of field. I was in AF-C mode since I was using back-button focussing. I was getting annoying hunting, enough to make me switch to manual focus to get the shot. Now I know why.
In practice, this is a circumstance where it is better to switch to AF-S and I should probably set up a custom button or add this choice to the function menu. Alternatively, one could capture focus at something wider than f/9 then set the target aperture and shoot, without refocussing. Worth a try.
Clearly this is a major difference between mirrorless cameras and DSLR’s.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some thoughts on ETTR from Fred Miranda:
For those looking for an easy way to expose to the right (ETTR) and improve S/N ratio and with that, cleaner shadows, I have found a very easy way using your A7RII zebra function. It probably works similarly with the A7R and other models but the settings presented here are for the A7RII only.
In the past I have used the "blinkies" in playback mode or live histogram to determine when highlights get clipped but with zebras it's way easier to preview and get more consistent results. By trial and error I have determined the amount of highlight latitude between the RAW and JPEG (Which zebras are probably based on), and can calculate a safe exposure setting based on zebras to get the most S/N ratio without sacrificing any highlight detail.
How to do it:- Set Zebra to "100+" to display any overexposure. (similar to highlight "blinkies" alert)- Set Metering Mode to: Multi.- Shoot in RAW mode.- Creative Style set to standard with default settings
Expose until you get no Zebra strip pattern on the highlights areas. Then add "2EV" to get your ETTR exposure.That's it!!! 2.3EV is the max but I found that 2EV is safe preserving 100% of highlights.
Yes, an additional 2EV (after no zebra stripes) is a safe setting and you have successfully exposure your image to the right. (ETTR)
When bringing your RAW image to LR or CaptureOne, reduce the exposure back to normal or just recover the highlights if you prefer.
PS: Sometimes, to get no zebra pattern in the highlights areas you may need to actually underexpose your shot. That is perfectly normal as with ETTR we are exposing to the right of the histogram as much as the scene allows.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note on 12-bit mode restrictions:
It's documented on the Sony's A7RII Help guide that resolution is limited to 12 bits when using the following shooting modes:
- Silent Shooting
*I would turn this mode OFF for critical work - Long Exposure NR (when the camera automatically captures a black frame after the exposure)
*I would turn this mode OFF and capture a black frame instead - Bulb (more than 30 sec. exposure)
*Once you pass 30 seconds your files will gain 1-stop more noise and have 1-stop less dynamic rage. If you are doing Nightcapes and need ISO 400 or higher, the noise increase from the bits reduction will be unnoticeable according to the article below. Another workaround is to take several 30-second exposures and stack them in Photoshop as Smart Object –> Stack Mode -> Summation. So (2) 30-seconds stacked this way will end up looking the same as a 1-minute exposure. - Continuous Shooting. (Including Bracketing continuous shooting)
*When using Bracketing, do not set the camera to continuous shooting
Jim Kasson put this to test with the A7II and was able to verity something that we had suspected from the initial A7RII online samples. 12 bits will make your shadows worse by about 1 stop and the image will also lose about 1-stop of dynamic range. It's very noticeable when recovering shadows in post-processing.
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
MItakon 50mm f/-95 lens for E-Mount
I was fascinated by this lens. While the “gold standard” of fast primes is the Leica Noctilux (https://us.leica-camera.com/Photography/Leica-M/M-Lenses/Noctilux-M-50mm-f-0.95-ASPH), it’s price is eye-watering at over $10,000. Mitakon makes a similar spec’d lens for SONY E-mount for ~$900 so I bought one to give it a try. The reviews were clear that, at f/.95, the lens was “soft”, likey much softer than the Noctilux. On the other hand, the rendering at this aperture leads to a very “dreamy” image where only the point of focus is sharp and the rest is nicely blurred. I’m sure the quality of the bokeh is far better witht he Noctilux but, again, the price difference is extreme.
My first test with this lens was to see how it compared to a “known” lens - the SONY/Zeiss 55mm f/1.8. This is a sharp lens at all apertures so I thought I’s do a comparison with a resolution target.
I positioned the camera to fill the frame with the target, which put it at ~2ft distance. I lit it with 2 LED panels positioned above and to the right and left of the target. It was a challenge to light the target evenly as you can see. Plus the rough texture of the target caused specular effects you will see in the magnified crops. Both cameras were set in manual exposure mode and manually focussed.
At this distance, the DOF for the Mitakon, at f/.95, is approx 0.3in.
Here’s a compariosn between the SONY/Zeiss at f/1.8 and the Mitakon at f/.95, cropped.
SONY/Zeiss on the left (f/1.8), Mitakon on the right (f/.95.
Clearly there is softness, but not extreme. Much of this softness was corrected with some minor adjustments in Lightroom as shown below.
Both images are with the Mitakon @f/.95. The left image is uncorrected, the right image is the same file which has the following corrections applied:
Exposure - +.35
Contrast - +65 (this makes a big difference but may not need to be this much, depending on the subject)
Sharpening - 60/.7/70/20 (per Diglloyd)
Manual lens distortion correction - +5 - corrects mild barrel distortion
The image benefitted fro a small amount of “dehaze” adjustment to reduce the halos. - +13
While not so evident from the target images, there is also quite a bit of vignetting which can easily be corrected in Lightroom, if desired.
By the time we got to f/2, both lenses had similar center resolution, although the SONY/ZEISS retaind slightly better edge focus.
Mitakon is on the left, SONY/ZEISS is on the right. Both at f/2.0, uncorrected.
Both lenses had similar performance up to f/8, the limit to which I tested.
A note on manual focussing. At f/.95, focussing becomes quite challenging and critical. Focus peaking is essential and I had it set it to “high”. This was the only setting which allowed me to get the best guide for focus when fully magnified on the rear LCD/viewfinder.
I next tried some (pseudo) real world examples.
Below are presented (cropped) images at different apertures. All focussed on the eye.
F/.95
Corrected:
Exposure: +.4
Contrast: +25
Sharpness: 60/.7/70/20
Dehaze: +13
f/1.4 - uncorrected
f/5.6 - uncorrected.
More cropped examples
f/.95
Corrected:
Exposure: +.4
Contrast: +30
Sharpness: 60/.7/70/20
Dehaze: +13
f/1.4 - uncorrected
f/5.6 - uncorrected
Overall I’m pretty happy with this lens and would use it for 50mm work when I’m OK manual focussing, which, with the A7R II, is a breeze. There are some issues to be careful of, however. You need to make sure DOF is adequate for the subject. The image below works well at shallow DOF:
With the next image, I blew it by having too shallow a DOF for the group shot. In my excitement to shoot in low light, with low ISO, I forgot about DOF.
Here, at approx. 10ft distance, I needed at least 3ft of DOF. With a 55mm lens, full-frame, this translates to an aperture of f/4 - f/5.6 (preferred)
Electronic Shutter and banding effects.
This is a big topic and will take some explaining but it’s important to understand, not just how the electronic (Silent) shutter works on the A7R II but also the limitations of the mechanical shutter, the undesireable effects on images and how to avoid them.
First, some theory.
Mechanical shutter. The mechanical shutter is the default and is also known as a focal plane shutter. With this shutter, when the shutter release is pressed, the front curtain (mechanical) opens, initiating the exposure, then the rear curtain closes, terminating the exposure. The time it takes for the front curtain to open (and rear curtain to close) is not instantaneous. For the A7R II, it is about 1/300sec. This time is known as the shutter rate. The front and rear curtains are synchronized so that the exposure time is constant over the entire image. With this mechanism, while you can set and exposure of, say, 1/1000 sec, the entire exposure time is 1/300sec + 1/1000sec. The result of this is that if anything in the image is moving fast, the 1/300sec shutter rate could cause distortion (jello effect). This is generally not much of a problem except for very fast moving objects.On the other hand, the shutter rate limitation affects the use of flash and limits the shutter speed to the shutter rate for flash - more on that later.
Electronic Shutter. This is also known as the silent shutter for the A7R II. (Custom Settings 5)
http://helpguide.sony.net/ilc/1520/v1/en/contents/TP0001093408.html?search=silent%20shooting
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3885998
The electronic shutter mode activates the exposure directly on the image sensor and eliminates the need for the front and rear curtain. As a result, exposures can be completely silent. Not only that but exposure times can be even faster than with the mechanical shutter since there are no moving parts. On the other hand, reading out the image data from the sensor needs to occur during the exposure, typically line by line. This can take time resulting in an extended shutter rate. For the A7R II, this time is 1/12sec. That’s right, very slow. Thus, anything that moves during this 1/12sec period can potentially cause the “jello-effect” distortion. As a result, the electronic shutter is not recommended for fast moving objects, despite the fact that you can have very fast shutter speeds.
Here are some examples of focal plane distortion (jello effect)
Banding effects with an electronic shutter and artificial light.
Artificial lighting, particularly LED lighting, can cause severe banding effects due to the long duration of the shutter rate. When LED lights are dimmed, they are switched off and on at a rapid rate so that to the eye, the light seems constant but the lights are really switching on and off and the image sensor can detect this under specific circumstances.
The red line represents the shutter rate. The time between the blue lines is the exposure time. For really long shutter rate you can see multiple bands across the image. If the exposure time is short, relative to the light frequency, this will increase the intensity of the banding. If the exposure time is long, relative to the light frequency, then banding can be minimized, or eliminated, due to the averaging effect of the on-off cycles of the light. The number of bands is approximately equal to the number of light cycles divided by the shutter time.
Ex. If the shutter rate is fs and the light intensity frequency is fl, then the number of bands is approx equal to fl/fs
So, if fs is 12/sec (1/12sec time) and fl is 60/sec, we should see 5 bands, assuming the exposure time is >1/120 sec (nyquist sampling).
Real World Example.
Here is an image shot under artificial light, assumed to be LED
here are some crops.
You’ll immediately notice that there are a lot of bands and they are quite severe. There are approx. 95-100 bands from top to bottom. We already know that the shutter rate of the A7R II is 1/12sec. This suggests that the light frequency (fl) 1.1KHz - 1.2KHz
Also, the spacing between the bands is slightly biased to light versus dark suggesting the lights are dimmed to slightly lighter than 50%.
Here is the metadata for this image:
The shutter speed is 1/250sec. If the light frequency is around 1/1000sec, this would suggest the light effects should be averaged out. This is clearly not the case. So, maybe 4 cycles is not enough? In fact, when examining the banding on this image in PS, I noticed that very small differences in luminance can cause visible banding. Differences as small as 5% change in luminance are clearly visible. If the exposure time is not exactly a multiple of the lighting (switching) wavelength then it doesn’t take much to cause a 5% variation in luminosity.
Fixing the problem.
- Bring the image into Ps.
- Perform "Duplicate Layer" twice.
- In the middle layer, run a median filter with a kernel size of 4 px
- In the top layer, run a median filter with a kernel size of 44 px
- Create Layer masks for both the middle and top layer.
- Fill those layer masks with black.
- Turn off the top layer,
- In the middle layer, paint into the layer mask with white in the areas with the banding.
- Adjust the opacity of the middle layer to taste.
- Turn on the top layer,
- In the top layer, paint into the layer mask with white in the areas with the banding.
- Adjust the opacity of the top layer to taste.
- Save the file
View: original size
It will make more sense after you've dont it. It'll take you about five minutes.
Frequency Separation Method:
This is for later use re fixing Banding in Photoshop (Mike’s method).
1. Import photo into Photoshop
2. Create a layer from the background and rename to “Base Layer”
3. Duplicate this layer 3 more times and rename:
-Very Low Pass
-Low Pass
-High Pass
4. Turn off visibility to Low Pass & High Pass. Select Very Low pass
5. Select Filter -> Surface Blur and blur the image until all the banding disappears, but no further
6. Turn on visibilty to Low pass and select this layer.
7. Select Filter -> Surface Blur and blur the image until just the fine detail disappears. Make sure the banding is still clearly visible (just like the original)
8. Turn on the High Pass Layer and select it.
9. Go to Image -> Apply Image. Settings - Layer -> Low Pass, Blending -> Subtract, Scale -> 2, Offset -> 128 ->OK
10. This layer will now only show the detail (and hopefully no banding).
11. With the High Pass layer selected, pick the Linear Light blending mode showing that the combination of the Low Pass Layer plus the high pass layer equals the original image. Check this.
12. Add a layer mask to the Low Pass layer. Make sure it’s white
13. Select the layer mask and, with a black brush, start to paint in the layer below (Very Low Pass) in the areas where you wish to eliminate the banding. The detail should be preserved in the High pass layer but be careful. Do this for the entire image where banding is visible
14. If you haven’t set the Low pass layer correctly, some banding may have “leaked” into the high pass layer. If this happens, start over and try again. There’s probably a solution using smart objects but I haven’t figured this out yet. Ideally it would be nice to play around with the various blurrings to get the optimum results. Also, try differenrt opacity and feathering with the brush to refine results.
15. While this method generally does a good job at removing banding from faces while preserving detail. It also can cause a bit of softening of the image which can be compensated for by some sharpening. Experiment.
Using this method, here is the before & After
Before:
After:
Full Size, Before:
Full Size, after:
Conclusion: OK, it’s possible to eliminate (mostly) even the worst banding. This example addresses banding that is relatively high frequency. Other types of banding may need a different method. The result looks a little “plasticky” but would be fine in an emergency. The method shows it’s possible to eliminate the banding while preserrving much of the (facial) detail.
See also: https://fstoppers.com/education/how-do-frequency-separation-mixer-brush-photoshop-189963