# removing posterization



## Twainman (Jul 26, 2013)

hi everyone, i have searched this great site and not found exactly what i'm looking for. i need a solution to remove posterization in some of my photos. i shoot in raw and have lightroom5 and the nik collection. if anyone can help that would be great.


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## Tony Jay (Jul 26, 2013)

Hi Twainman welcome to Lightroom Forums.

I have a question - the posterization that you mention, is this present in unaltered RAW images or after post-processing?

Tony Jay


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## Twainman (Jul 26, 2013)

thanks for answering, the posterization shows up on some images after post-processing.


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## Tony Jay (Jul 27, 2013)

Then it is a simple matter of reversing what you did.

Tony Jay


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## Twainman (Jul 27, 2013)

thanks Tony but i'm not sure what you mean


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## Tony Jay (Jul 27, 2013)

Yes, take the RAW processed images and remove the settings that you have applied and start again.
Re-process your images so that there is no posterization.
Lightroom is designed as a parametric editor so this is very easy to do since the actual RAW image is never altered in itself.

Tony Jay


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## Twainman (Jul 27, 2013)

thanks a lot Tony, I will try redoing some images and see how things look


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## bobrobert (Jul 27, 2013)

Generally speaking it means if you see posterization then you have over processed an image. That is something I believe is hard to accomplish in LR. Are you sure it is a Raw image and not a jpeg?


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## tzalman (Jul 27, 2013)

bobrobert said:


> Generally speaking it means if you see posterization then you have over processed an image. That is something I believe is hard to accomplish in LR. Are you sure it is a Raw image and not a jpeg?



Yes, causing posterization in a 14 bit or even a 12 bit Raw is not easily done and even more difficult in 16 bit RGB output to a Nik application. Attempting to save an extremely underexposed shot with +3 to +4 Exposure might do it.


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## Twainman (Jul 27, 2013)

thanks to everyone who's responded, it's wonderful knowing that some people actually want to help. there are too many uncaring people out there now. it's probably always been that way. again, i'm grateful, twainman


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