PS Color Settings Error?

[Chris Lupetti]

Hello,
Go the the menu bar and select View, then scroll down and select Clear Guides.

I hope this helped.

[Ieatgraphics]

Oh no sorry not the guides. I mean when i use the brush , the black to grey coloring gets all wierd. Its not smooth.

[Darby Edelen]

That looks like normal banding across a gradient. Do you not have a gradient in that PSD? Some more detailed information about what is going on in the screenshot might be helpful. Does it only occur with black? Are you using a working color profile?

Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA

[Ieatgraphics]

Yes, thats what happens when i use a normal gradient. I get these huge streaks.. I cant seem to make it smooth.

Color Profile: sRGB IEC61966-2.1

Here is another screen shot with color settings. Everything seems grainy.

http://www.lucianocastillo.com/needhelp.jpg

thanks
-luc

[Darby Edelen]

Banding across gradients is a normal part of working in the digital realm due to a phenomenon known as quantization.

You might recall that in an 8bpc (8 bits per channel) PSD you have 256 levels in each of the color channels. If you have a gradient over a distance of 5 pixels with a beginning value of 10 and an end value of 14 you will have a unique value for each of the 5 pixels (10, 11, 12, 13, 14), but if that same gradient is spread across 50 pixels then you will see banding. The computer still only has 5 values to spread across 50 pixels so you will see a ‘line’ every 10 pixels where the value suddenly jumps a level.

There are a few ways to try and combat this, you could try creating a 16bpc or 32bpc (float) PSD. These options are accesible under the Image > Mode menu.

Alternatively, you could add some noise to the gradient to make the transitions between values less obvious.

I hope this answers your question, feel free to clarify if I’ve missed something.

Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA