"banding"

[beth hansen]

How to clean up a scanned image that has color "banding"(for lack of better word) in the sky part of the image. I did a search here, but couldn't really think what exactly to search on! "PE2 beginner is exposed!!!"
thanks in advance,
Beth

[beth hansen]

answering my own question a little...did another search and did find a reference to using gaussian blur from Carl Wegner (thanks). I tried that, and it just might do it. However, if anyone has any other suggestion, please feel free!
thanks again,
Beth

[Nancy S]

Beth,

But I wonder why the sky looks that way, it shouldn't. You are meaning the different shades of color don't blend smoothly, correct?

What OS are you using and are you working in RGB mode in PSE? (Image>Mode) Also what color setting are you using for your display, 16 bit or 32 bit?

[beth hansen]

Nancy,
To answer your questions...
windows 2000
RGB
32 bit
I know why the sky looks this way...it was scanned from an image in a book. Therefore the original image is made up of dots...then it is scanned into dots, and the resulting dots don't line up. Like when you look through 2 pieces of screen that are a little bit offset. This results in the moire pattern.
I'll play around with layers and filters...should be able to blend it out. I hope. Thanks for your time.
Beth

[Chuck Snyder]

Beth, Scott Kelby in 'The Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers' recommends:

1. Select the area that has the moire pattern (the sky in your case); soften the edge of the selection with a 2 pixel feather.

2. Copy the sky onto its own new layer (Layer<New<New Layer via Copy)

3. On the new layer, apply a Gaussian blur (Filter<Blur<Gaussian Blur, dragging the slider from left to right until the moire disappears.

4. In the Layers palette, change the Blending mode of the new layer to Color.

He says that oughta do it - and he oughta know!

:-)

Chuck

[Elena Murphy]

What magnification are you viewing the image in? It's possible that is your problem... If you aren't viewing at a multiple of 50% or 100%, the view is interpolated and sometimes looks bad even if it isn't. Also, what resolution did you scan the image into? Might be an issue there too..

[Leen Koper]

Sometimes scanning it twice at different resolutions, resizing and copying one image over the other and use the opacity slider in the layers menu will make it less obvious.

Leen

[Barbara Brundage]

Also try scanning it on a 45 degree angle if you can.