Canon 5D mark i banding

[sotos97]

I have been doing some test shots today with my favorite 5D - The faulty 5D mark i. 

I bought this in June and have taken around 6000 shots. In some of the shots I have seen the notorious banding issue. Tried some indoor shots today and it was very apparent, also in cases where I didn't pull shadows. I used the 50mm 1.4 but have seen it happen with the 85mm 1.8 as well. Is there any way to fix this or prevent it from happening? I am not a hopeless romantic, I have a 5D4 but I will not give up my 5D mark i, it renders beautiful images.

[Waddizzle]

Post a sample shot or two.  If you are shooting indoors, you could be seeing the effects of solid state lighting flicker.

[Peter]

And post raw files.

[ebiggs1]

Jacking up the sliders in post will make it worse. Remember less is more most of the time.

Posterization, sometimes called banding, can be explained by too little information spread too far apart.  Have you done all the latest upgrades to LR and PS?  One thing you must not do if this posterization shows up is hike up the 'clarity' slider.  This makes it worse. Increasing the 'grain' will reduce posterization.

You can also try to increase the color space to AdobeRGB.  Some say that doesn't help but it does. Some shots benefit from it some shots don't.  The color space in what you see is increased even though the color space outside the ability of your monitor is wasted.

Look at your histogram.  It will indicate posterization especially in a processed jpg.  The histogram is an invaluable tool.

[sotos97]

That is actually really interesting. How do I find out if I have posterization? 

[ebiggs1]

"Look at your histogram.  It will indicate posterization especially in a processed jpg.  The histogram is an invaluable tool."

The histogram should look rather smooth. If it has a lot of deep jagged or missing  areas, it can be a sign of posterization.

If I remember correctly the 5D (there is no 5D Mk 1) has a color space for AdobeRGB. Try that. Avoid under exposing especially in shadows. Always shoot large Raw format. When you post edit don't go crazy with the sliders. Especially clarity.  Sometimes banding or posterization is added in or made much worse in post. Once you are in post editing avoid changing the color space.

If you have not yet, get the free from Canon DPP4 for your 5D. It will give excellent, perhaps the best, results from your 5D.

[RobertTheFat]

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@ebiggs1 wrote:

"Look at your histogram.  It will indicate posterization especially in a processed jpg.  The histogram is an invaluable tool."

The histogram should look rather smooth. If it has a lot of deep jagged or missing  areas, it can be a sign of posterization.

If I remember correctly the 5D (there is no 5D Mk 1) has a color space for AdobeRGB. Try that. Avoid under exposing especially in shadows. Always shoot large Raw format. When you post edit don't go crazy with the sliders. Especially clarity.  Sometimes banding or posterization is added in or made much worse in post. Once you are in post editing avoid changing the color space.

If you have not yet, get the free from Canon DPP4 for your 5D. It will give excellent, perhaps the best, results from your 5D.

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Ernie, I'm a linguistics buff, so your fastidious adherence to accuracy of expression is sort of heartening. But can't we adopt the convention, which is already the common default in this forum, that any camera model that is first in a series is automatically a Mk I? Of course it wasn't called a Mk I originally, but calling it a Mk I now ensures that the reader won't think you're referring to the whole series.

[ebiggs1]

Robert I have and I see no reason to change the name.  It is printed clearly on the front of the camera.  5D Mk 1 is not there.

However if you feel confused when folks speak of the 5D, than by all means go for it. 

I suppose it is like the difference of Raw and RAW. Raw is correct because it is a word. It is not an acronym but you still see folks use RAW to define it.  Doesn't hurt either way I suspect.

[FloridaDrafter]

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@ebiggs1 wrote:

I suppose it is like the difference of Raw and RAW. Raw is correct because it is a word. It is not an acronym but you still see folks use RAW to define it.  Doesn't hurt either way I suspect.

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LOL, you are correct of course. I never gave it any thought because every bit of literature I have that is published by Canon, capps it out RAW. I'm just following Canon protocol  Yah, that's the ticket, following protocol.

FD

[ebiggs1]

Let me know if anything helped.  As I recall on my 5D, it was susceptible to some banding. Kick that color space up to Adobe RGB and try it. Make sure your editor is also set to Adobe RGB or it will switch it back and that will make banding even worse.