Soft brush breaking up???

[skoobey]

So, this is what happens, and I don't care much if it occurs when I do skin or fabric, as it is not noticeable, but I've been trying to smooth out a background and this is what happens
123.jpg

You see how the transitions aren't smooth, it breaks up almost as if that it's banding??? I know I can add noise to the brush, but adding more and more noise just keeps ruining it as it gets spotty.

How do I deal with this?

[skoobey]

Okay, so it is due to the 8biting the image as always.

I tell you after this set, I am going to get an SSD just so I can save 16bit so much faster.

Now I see what the difference between 16 and 8 is, things just tend to break more quickly in 8bit, especially when you do a couple of "harsher" filters.

All hail 16bit!

[kav]

Originally Posted by skoobey

Okay, so it is due to the 8biting the image as always.

I can tell you from experience that 8bpc works just fine for painting like this. It's completely different from heavy filtration, and even then, 8bpc worked for many years as the filters wouldn't run at 16bpc until CS2 or so. It's weird that you're worried about the masking channel being 100% smooth, as it's typically not an issue anyway. I'd mask out the entire problem area then brush back any areas that need less of it.

[ratpat13]

It is because your working in 8 bit, at such a low opacity the number of steps in gray available are too few and your going to see posterization. But even in 16bit mode at that opacity and flow your probably going to see some posterization, just less.

The question is are you seeing it in your final output at the desired size then i wouldn't worry about it.

[skoobey]

kav,

I needed it to smooth the transitions in a paper backdrop. But, it's cool, I smoothed it out in 8bit as far as I could, then at the end of retouching I just made a flat merged layer, put some median to it, added noise and masked it out to fit the areas, worked like a charm.


ratpat13,

exactly, I figured it out myself, but that's exactly it. I love it so much when I learn something that I can use everyday!

[kav]

Originally Posted by skoobey

kav,

I needed it to smooth the transitions in a paper backdrop. But, it's cool, I smoothed it out in 8bit as far as I could, then at the end of retouching I just made a flat merged layer, put some median to it, added noise and masked it out to fit the areas, worked like a charm.

Paper backdrops are always a pain in the ass. I usually end up working on a background copy for something like that rather than using adjustment layers or blending modes and sometimes there's a lot of building out and redrawing, and trying to ensure it matches the intended lighting and transitions. When they're bad they're really quite annoying.