Reduce banding from LED lighting

[storello]

 Unfortunately I shot photos using silent shutter and a shutter speed of 1/250 and I didn't notice the very fine banding caused by the flicker from the LED stage lighting. As a result, I have a number of photos that I'm hoping I can fix. I've tried blurring and adding noise but those solutions are quite destructive. I'd greatly appreciate any suggestions. 

Thanks!

 

DSC02181.dng

[NotMyFault]

Hi,

 

for this specific image:

• add a motion blur filter
• set direction to 90 degree (up/down)
• set radius as required (15-30)
• use erase brush to remove hand or any area with sharp contrast / not effected by banding stripes
• Note that this motion blur removes the original noise, which you rate as welcome or bad. Just add a new noise filter, to regain an overall consistent noise level.

In general (much more complex)

it seems the stripes are showing a specific pattern (width and distance in y direction). It is possible to create a mask having the exact pattern, either by procedural texture filter, or by using vector shapes & gradients & power duplicate.

You can then try to Analyse a correction by e.g curves, HSL adjustment, or even the motion blur filter, and experiment with blend modes like luminosity, lighten etc. Then apply the mask mentioned before to that correction filter. Add another mask to remove effect wehre not suitable.

I have analysed your image using my special RGB->HSL procedural texture filter.

Unfortunately the stripes impact both saturation and luminosity, and in the highlights area hue (by clipping effects). It will be very hard to create a single adjustment covering all areas. You may need to create a set of adjustments, depending on color / brightness of the source region.

I tried FFT denoise, bit this does‘nt help as the pattern is only one-dimensional.

Goo look, and let us know if you found a good solution (in Photo or outside)

[storello]

1 hour ago, NotMyFault said:

Hi,

 

for this specific image:

• add a motion blur filter
• set direction to 90 degree (up/down)
• set radius as required (15-30)
• use erase brush to remove hand or any area with sharp contrast / not effected by banding stripes
• Note that this motion blur removes the original noise, which you rate as welcome or bad. Just add a new noise filter, to regain an overall consistent noise level.
•  

Thank you so very much, NotMyFault! The motion blur filter helped a lot without having to create a very difficult overlay. I think it will be good enough for this particular project. Thankfully, I lowered my shutter speed later in the evening and that fixed the problem in camera so I really only need to fix up a couple of the early shots. Next time, I'll use a mechanical shutter.

[David in Яuislip]

You could try G'MIC Banding Denoise
This is a very quick attempt using a filter that I didn't know existed until a few minutes ago so better choice of parameters may well improve the result. Some artifacts appear but to my mind they're preferable to the banding
Good luck

DSC02181after.zip

[storello]

Oooo. Thanks, David. It would be wonderful to have this filter available in Affinity Photo. I have a new M1 based Mac so it will probably be a bit of a challenge to get this to work on my machine, but perhaps I'll take a stab at it. 

[David in Яuislip]

Shame, if you put your details in your signature then it'll stop people like me from raising your hopes too much 🙂

It seems that some have got it working with Gimp on a mac but I'll bet it's a struggle

https://gmic.eu/download.html

[storello]

Thanks, David,

This is was my first post and I can't seem to find the location for a signature. Would you mind sending me a hint on that?

[David in Яuislip]

Hope this helps, it's the daftest interface ever, I always struggle

[NotMyFault]

1 hour ago, David in Яuislip said:

Shame, if you put your details in your signature then it'll stop people like me from raising your hopes too much 🙂

It seems that some have got it working with Gimp on a mac but I'll bet it's a struggle

https://gmic.eu/download.html

I tried, it doesn’t work on non-intel Macs. No chance.

[David in Яuislip]

24 minutes ago, NotMyFault said:

No chance.

If you can't do it then it's officially impossible. Should save @storello some time

[storello]

6 hours ago, David in Яuislip said:

Hope this helps, it's the daftest interface ever, I always struggle

Hmm. No go on this either. I wonder if you need to be at a certain level to get the signature options? This is a ll I see.

[R C-R]

31 minutes ago, storello said:

I wonder if you need to be at a certain level to get the signature options?

You do need to meet certain criteria to add a sig, but I am not sure what exactly they are. I think it is some combination of how long you have been a forum member, how many posts you have made, & (maybe) your 'reputation' points.

[David in Яuislip]

9 hours ago, storello said:

Hmm. No go on this either. I wonder if you need to be at a certain level to get the signature options? This is a ll I see.

Oh well, all in goodtime I suppose. Have a like, it won't do any harm 🙂

[NotMyFault]

Try this link

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/settings/signature/

[Dan C]

Welcome to the Affinity Forums @storello 

11 hours ago, storello said:

I wonder if you need to be at a certain level to get the signature options?

I can confirm that by default the 'signature' options aren't available to brand new members here on the forums, as spammers were using this to include hidden links within their profile etc.

Usually your Affinity Forum account would automatically 'upgrade' from a New Member to the regular Members group, allowing you to set a signature after certain criteria are met - however I have since manually changed your Forum account to this Members group, meaning you should now be able to set your signature etc.

I hope this helps!