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Photoshop CS6: soft brush suddenly looks pixelated instead of smooth

Guest
Feb 16, 2013 Feb 16, 2013

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I've never had this problem before. I'm using the standard soft round brush to blend colors, which has always given a smooth effect, but now it suddenly looks all pixelated. The brush strokes also appears in rings instead of a smooth gradient. It looks as if the picture has been sharpened too much or saved in bad quality. I've already tried things like changing the brush settings, deleting photoshop preferences, increasing the RAM assigned to photoshop, but nothing works. Does anyone know what caused this? It's driving me insane! I get the same problem in an older version (Photoshop CS), so perhaps it's not photoshop itself?

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

New Here , Jun 19, 2017 Jun 19, 2017

Just to add to this in case anyone else encounters the same problem.

I had banding that almost appeared vector like in photoshop cc 2017 when using any brush much like the problems encountered in this thread.  Luckily I have a dual monitor setup with a 27" LG IPS and a 24" Dell IPS.  What I did was drag the file from photoshop from my main LG into the Dell and noticed that the gradients all appeared perfect.  That led me to believe that it wasn't the video card or photoshop necessarily causing t

...

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LEGEND ,
Feb 16, 2013 Feb 16, 2013

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Sounds like a problem with your display settings on your system, or possibly a problem with your monitor.

Does it show in a screen grab?

If so, please post a screen grab here so others can see exactly what you're seeing.

Please also describe your system (hardware, OS, etc.).

-Noel

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Guest
Feb 16, 2013 Feb 16, 2013

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Thank you for the reply!

Here's a screenshot of the pixelated brush:

http://i1278.photobucket.com/albums/y520/Kitsuru/ss_zpsbf2397a1.jpg

And these are my system specifics:

Windows 7, service pack 1

Intel(R) Core (TM) i7-3610QM CPU @ 2.30 GHz

RAM 8,00 GB
Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000
NVIDIA GeForce 610M

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Guest
Feb 16, 2013 Feb 16, 2013

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Here's how it looks when i tried to paint with it:
http://i1278.photobucket.com/albums/y520/Kitsuru/ss2_zps3059f8cf.jpg

It looks all blocky and pixelated instead of smooth.

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LEGEND ,
Feb 16, 2013 Feb 16, 2013

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Everything looks smooth from here in your screen grabs (within my ability to tell - you've downsized the images).  This may imply you're having a monitor, cable, or (possibly) video card failure.

Just to verify in the other direction, does this image look smooth to you or blocky and pixelated?  Check it in both your browser and Photoshop.

SmoothGradientTestImage.png

-Noel

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Guest
Feb 16, 2013 Feb 16, 2013

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That's strange, since i've sent the picture to two other people and they see it as well.

The image in your reply looks perfectly smooth, both in my browser and photoshop.

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LEGEND ,
Feb 16, 2013 Feb 16, 2013

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Were they looking at downsized copies, exactly as you posted here?

-Noel

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Guest
Feb 16, 2013 Feb 16, 2013

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They were looking at the original file, although i havent downsized the screenshots.
I took a photo of it with my phone (the quality is obviously bad, but the pixely patches that you can see in it is exactly what i see on my laptop):
http://i1278.photobucket.com/albums/y520/Kitsuru/DSC_0016_zps6b8a6108.jpg

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LEGEND ,
Feb 16, 2013 Feb 16, 2013

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The image you posted up above is MUCH darker than your photo.  And I can assure you the images above are downsized, possibly by photobucket, which may mask what it is you're trying to show.  Why not just attach them ot the posts here using the little camera icon?

At this point I'm not even sure I'm perceiving what it is you're trying to point out, possibly because of terminology problems...  Posterization describes a "paint by numbers" appearance where instead of smooth gradients you see "blocks" or "regions" with all the same color - making kind of a "digital" appearance out of it.  Is that more along the lines of what you're trying to say?

My best guess so far, and I have little confidence in it, is that maybe you have a miscalibrated monitor (set way too bright) and perhaps that is interacting with the fact that you're painting on an 8 bits/channel document.

Have you tried using 16 bits/channel mode?

-Noel

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Guest
Feb 16, 2013 Feb 16, 2013

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Yes you're right that the picture was too dark, i made the screenshot brighter. (Thank you for the camera tip, i'm not used to these forums yet!) Perhaps you can see it now?
ss.jpg

And that is indeed what i mean, when i use the brush it doesn't color smoothly but in blocks that look pixelated. It used to work fine until recently, and i haven't changed any settings.

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LEGEND ,
Feb 16, 2013 Feb 16, 2013

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Do you see the problem if you paint on a 16 bits/channel document?

Given that you seem prone to making wide brightness changes (presumably with Curves or something), you'll want the extra accuracy and smoothness the deeper data format will provide.

Perhaps you just weren't seeing the effect because of the nature of your prior work.  Working in limited bit depth isn't something that's just gone wrong, unless perhaps you were creating new documents in 16 bits/channel before without thinking about it and somehow your File - New dialog got switched to 8 bits/channel.

-Noel

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Guest
Feb 16, 2013 Feb 16, 2013

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I made the drastic brightness change to make the problem more visible to you, but the change from 16 bits to 8 bits per channel sounds like it might just be the problem. I'll go and check it right now.

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Guest
Feb 16, 2013 Feb 16, 2013

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I'm afraid that hasn't fixed the problem..Perhaps i should show you an example of what i want to get back to: spudfuzz.jpg
This is the previous picture i did but i can no longer get the colors to overlap smoothly like this because the shading is now blocky (or in rings, as you said earlier). If you compare it to the screenshot, you should be able to see a difference (if it isn't my monitor settings after all). Do you know of any other settings that could have affected it?

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LEGEND ,
Feb 16, 2013 Feb 16, 2013

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Nice work.

Just changing an existing 8 bits/channel image to 16 bits is not going to correct the posterization that has already occurred due to the quantization of color values into one of 256 luminance levels.

You may have to use some smoothing tools such as the Blur Tool or maybe the Smudge Tool, or even just the Brush Tool again and brush over those spots  to clean them up.

I'm afraid there may not be an easy fix for the places where it's happened already.

-Noel

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Guest
Feb 16, 2013 Feb 16, 2013

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Yes, I changed it to 16 bits and tried painting over it, but it just creates more blocks on top. Thank you for your help though, I appreciate it.

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LEGEND ,
Feb 16, 2013 Feb 16, 2013

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Just to be absolutely certain you're not having another problem, if you paint over a spot that's smooth, does it stay smooth?  Or does that "block up" too?

-Noel

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Guest
Feb 16, 2013 Feb 16, 2013

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Yes, the spots that are smooth stay smooth when i paint over it. I have no idea how that's possible

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LEGEND ,
Feb 16, 2013 Feb 16, 2013

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I can explain it, but it gets a bit technical.

In 8 bits/channel mode, every red, green, and blue component of a pixel's color is quantized to fit in 8 bits - meaning there are only 256 different levels of red, green, and blue.

In short, in an 8 bits/channel document, there are only so many shades you can have.  Generally speaking, with a good monitor the difference between these shades is just about visible. 

Worse yet, if you do anything to an image where you manipulate it  - e.g., brightening it with Curves or something - adjacent shades that differed by one level can end up differing by more than one level and become even more visible.

In order to "cover up" the blockiness/posterization that you've already accumulated, you'll need to blend those areas after having switched to 16 bit mode, possibly as I said using the Smudge Tool to "smear" adjacent pixels together.  Try it.  It may take a while to get the hang of it, but it does work.  The other alternative is to just repaint those areas from scratch.  Like I said, it may not be easy to fix, but I don't think all is lost.

Another technique people sometimes use to hide posterization is to add noise selectively, which tends to break up the digital appearance of the noise.

As an example I smudged, added noise, and a tiny bit of motion blur to selections within one of the feathers in the image you posted...

FixedFeathers.jpg

-Noel

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New Here ,
Feb 21, 2013 Feb 21, 2013

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This hasnt solved the same problem i'm getting. is there anything else i can check?

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Guest
Feb 21, 2013 Feb 21, 2013

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I see what you mean, though using those methods doesn't give the same quality I'm looking for. Even when smudging it, it just moves the blocks instead of blending the colors together..Perhaps I should just start from scratch in 16/bits per channel and see if the problem stays. Thank you for the help.

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New Here ,
Feb 21, 2013 Feb 21, 2013

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ive tried this, and no luck 😕

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LEGEND ,
Feb 21, 2013 Feb 21, 2013

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At this point I'm not even sure I understand what it is you're seeing that you don't like, or whether your monitor is showing you what others' monitors show to them.

The initial image you posted, with soft brush strokes, looked pretty soft to me. Then the first feather image was almost black.

Perhaps it would be good if you'd start over.

Please create a new document and paint just a bit on it, in brightness levels that are easy to see, annotate the image with arrows showing *just* what you mean, and post the image here.  Perhaps someone will recognize what I'm apparently missing.

-Noel

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Guest
Feb 21, 2013 Feb 21, 2013

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My screen is probably too bright if other people see the picture as almost black (which is weird because i've already reduced the brightness a few times before 😕 )

As for not seeing the problem, it is a subtle grainy feeling to the brush.  I didn't notice it either at first until it accumulated and created the blocks when painting over it more and more..Maybe some people won't notice it, but i feel/see the difference from how it used to be and I fear that when i start painting to print it will be obvious in the prints.

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New Here ,
Feb 21, 2013 Feb 21, 2013

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Untitled-1.jpg
almost grainy like colours are missing, i really have no idea how to explain this.

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Guest
Feb 21, 2013 Feb 21, 2013

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I can see it too in your screenshots, so if Noel can't see it then it might be our monitors?

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