Affinity Photo: Banding When Using Soft Brush

[ianmacc]

Hi, 

I am getting unacceptable banding at the edges of the stroke when using a soft brush.  

This happens both when I am painting into a pixel layer or if I am painting onto a mask.  It happens on 27" 2017 Retina iMac and 2017 Retina MacBook Pro screens. 

I have tried all the different settings under the brush "More" tab but the banding is still there.

Please can anyone offer a solution, I use masks all the time and this is a deal breaker at the moment...

Many thanks, Ian

[Dan C]

Hi ianmacc,

Welcome to the forums

Could you please confirm the brush settings you're using here so we can look into this for you? 

 

[ianmacc]

Hi Dan

Thank you very much for your quick reply.

I have attached my brush settings.  I have played with Spacing, Flow & Shape but the banding is always present.

Update:   

I have just tried working on a document set at 16 bit and the brush edge has a much better (softer) gradation, the banding is no longer a problem.

When saving as an 8 bit finished document however, there is the return of a little banding at the edges, although nowhere near as bad as when editing an 8 bit document.

Any help or advice would be appreciated, in the meantime I will continue editing on 16 bit documents.

Kind regards, Ian

 

[Dan C]

Thanks for that Ian, the difference here is that we don't support dithering, unlike photoshop, which is confirmed in these threads - 

 

Using a 16 or 32 bit workspace can improve this dramatically, as it supports smoother gradients due to a wider space, and therefore less banding occurs.

[ianmacc]

Hi Dan

Thank you very much for the explanation and examples.  The banding I encountered this morning did have me worried, I must admit!

Going forward, I will work in 16 bit while editing.  I have recently completely moved over to Affinity Photo from PS and am delighted with it.  I have invested a lot of time these past weeks "unlearning" all my PS workflows and shortcuts, very difficult to do after 19 years of familiarity,  but it has been worth it.  The lack of bloat, speed and quality of Affinity made it totally the right decision for me.  

Kind regards, Ian