Banding in the sky only after I render a clip

[Duke Sweden]

By “rendering” do you mean rendering the timeline to play back smoother, or encoding the clip with Media Encoder, for example? If you’re encoding what codec are you using?

Also, you can eliminate most of the banding by adding like 3-5% film grain to your footage.

[Alan Lloyd]

That sort of banding is usually the result of significant bitrate reduction.

It’s not just the codec, it’s the data rate.

And yes, adding just a touch of noise might help smooth things back out, just don’t step on it too hard in the encoding/output!

[Luke Pearson]

thanks for the quick reply. by “rendering” I mean in the timeline for smoother playback. as in, changing the render bar from yellow to green. When the render bar is yellow there is no banding and the dissolve is smooth and clean. as soon as I render it or export it, the banding is present.

I’ve exported to different codecs with no luck too. I’ve tried the grain too with no luck.

[Luke Pearson]

thanks for the help. There is already noise added to the clip which isn’t helping. Is there anything else I can do to stop the bitrate reduction?

[Luke Pearson]

here is a before/after render picture:

[Luke Pearson]

they kind of look the same after exporting and uploading jpegs but in the timeline they look night and day different. One is smooth and the other has noticeable banding in the sky

[Duke Sweden]

From Adobe:
Video Rendering settings
Video Rendering settings control the picture quality, compression settings, and color depth that Premiere Elements uses when you play video from the Expert view timeline.

To access Video Rendering settings, choose Edit > Project Settings > Video Render. These settings include the following options:

Maximum Bit Depth

Allows Premiere Elements to use up to 32‑bit processing, even if the project uses a lower bit depth. Selecting this option increases precision but decreases performance.

File Format

Specifies the format of the preview video.

Compressor

Identifies the codec (compressor/decompressor) that Premiere Elements applies to generate movie previews. The project preset defines the codec. You cannot change it because it must conform to the DV standard.

[Alan Lloyd]

Another issue I can see is that with the images as dark as they are there is very little dynamic range available for depiction of any gradient in the sky. While I’m sure it’s called for in the narrative you’re really limiting yourself into a corner with how little of the available palette that’s being used in those images.

[Alan Lloyd]

Another thought, in the form of a question: What are you outputting and what are your settings? (File type, resolution, data rate, etc.)

[Luke Pearson]

sorry! forgot to mention the images i posted are midway through the fade up. thats why they’re dark. Thats the only place the banding is occurring so thats why I posted those.