# Image quality problem with Silver Efex Pro/Canon 80D in LR



## Simon Francis (Jul 3, 2016)

Hi everyone, first time poster here with a problem that's totally stumped me.

I recently got a new camera (Canon 80D) and images from it are showing horrible banding and quality deterioration when I take them from Lightroom into Silver Efex Pro. My workflow is exactly the same as it was with my old camera (also Canon). The only difference is that as the RAW files from the 80D aren't compatible with LR5, I have to convert them to DNG before I can import them. But I don't see that this should cause any sort of quality deterioration, let alone on this scale.

The problem is only evident in clear blue skies, though I assume the same deterioration in quality is happening in all my photos.

I load the photos from LR into Silver Efex as Tiffs, sRGB, 16bit, 360 resolution, no compression. Exactly the same settings as I've always used (well I used to use 300 resolution but I've tried lowering it here and the banding is even worse). The only difference is the DNG conversion before import (and the fact that files from the new camera are higher megapixel than the old). (I've also got a new, higher-spec laptop but I don't see how that could be affecting it.)

Here's a link to a sample image so you can see what I mean. It looks like the sort of thing you'd get from lowering the bit depth, but I'm not doing that. All I've done here was lens profile correction, some exposure adjustments, sharpening (with masking turned right up) and NR. Then I opened it in Silver Efex Pro and all I did there was add a yellow filter: and this is the result! As you can see it's a total nightmare; it's totally unable to cope with the colour gradient. The jpeg was exported at high quality with standard sharpening, but it looked horrible before export.

I don't think the problem is with Silver Efex Pro, I think that it's just displayed most clearly there, but I have no idea. Here's the same image straight from Lightroom, with some extreme editing to try and get the same effect - there is some quality deterioration, it's still not really a useable image, but it's not so extreme.

There's quite a lot of noise in the images from the 80D, which feels like it might be related to the problem, but I've tried whacking up the noise reduction and the sharpening masking, and the banding still appears. I'm worried that it may be down to some sort of fault in the camera.

Desperate for help, it's ruining my photos! Extremely grateful for any suggestions.

Using Lightroom 5.7.1 in Windows 10.

*Update*: I just tried editing the DNG file in exactly the same way on my old laptop. Doesn't seem to have the same problem at all. Same image file, same version of Silver Efex Pro (assuming they haven't updated it since it went free). The only difference is LR 5.7 instead of 5.7.1. That at least rules out the camera, I think (thank god). Could it be an issue with the LR update?


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## Gnits (Jul 3, 2016)

If you wish to post a sample raw file (say on dropbox) I would be happy to import it into the latest version of Lr and see what happens.


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## Simon Francis (Jul 3, 2016)

Gnits said:


> If you wish to post a sample raw file (say on dropbox) I would be happy to import it into the latest version of Lr and see what happens.



That would be fantastic, thanks very much! Here's the DNG file for the image I posted before. I think based on opening it on my old laptop that the problem I'm having isn't an issue with the camera or the DNG conversion, but if I could get a second opinion, it would help loads.


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## Gnits (Jul 3, 2016)

Will try downloading it now.  The Cr2 file would be better. WIll revert asap.


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## Gnits (Jul 3, 2016)

I downloaded your dng, loaded into Lr2015.6cc. I adjusted white and black points and then viewed the image at 100%.  Here is a screenshot of the two largest birds at 100%.






The image is exposed without shadow or highlight clipping at ISO 100 (ie good).  The subject is clearly not in focus.  However, the sky does look to have a very mottled effect.

I adjusted the black and white points just to get the max dynamic range from the image.  I then applied a gradient curve.   I notice I do not get any banding if I adjust the white point, but I run into banding very quickly as I move the black point towards the darks.  I assume that is normal, taking the small range of colours and tones in this image.

I do not understand the mottled effect of the blue sky ....  Later tonight, i will try to find an image of mine which has a lot of mid day clear blue sky and look at it at 100%.

However, most of the histogram is in the centre, with large areas left and right.  Any attempt to adjust white or black points in this image risks posterisation.

I brought the image into PS and applied my standard Silver Efex Pro settings.  With my settings (and there are millions of other combinations) the mottled background translated into a huge amount of digital noise as follows.





As your Nik and raw settings may be a million miles from mine, the results are in no way scientific.

I would like to bring the original raw file into Lr & Ps and repeat this exercise.

My view is that the constant blue of the sky and the small amount of areas taken up by the birds are likely to risk polarisation with even modest post processing.

I do not understand the mottled blue effect of the sky and would like to see this in the original raw.

Comments welcome.

I have to leave shortly, not sure what time I will be back tonight, but will comment further if not too late (or Iceland beat France).


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## Cerianthus (Jul 3, 2016)

I don't really see the problem you mention (banding, I do see noise). Are you using a calibrated monitor ? you mentioned that the problem wasnt there on a different computer.

maybe a printscreen rather then the file we need to be looking at would be handy as well.


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## Johan Elzenga (Jul 4, 2016)

Same here. The image is about one stop underexposed, so that will increase the noise when you correct that. There is no banding in the original image however, so any banding you see is either caused by a too aggressive use of the B&W plugin, or you have a problem with your monitor.


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