10-23-2006, 07:00 AM

Does anyone find that feathering an image in Photoshop on an IMac LCD gives a really hard edge? It's impossible to get a smooth grad on screen using a white soft feathered brush, even though it prints out fine. It's especially noticeable with images leaning towards magenta.

10-23-2006, 09:20 AM

seems odd that it would do that. A lot of gradients produce 'banding' though - is this what you refer to? A way to eliminate that, I'm told, is to apply a slight noise filter. Blurring before this also may help.

If it's not that, if could be either your monitor calibration, image res or viewing res (most accurate results are shown at 100%, 50% and 25% zoom. Anything else, and it often isn't displayed as smoothly as it should be.) Or it could be a combination of all these things.

Which version are you using? I've used photoshop 7 on lcd monitors for about 3 years, and never encountered anything like that. To check if it's photoshop, export the image (save as, save for web etc.) and open in preview or load it into a browser - just check if the same thing is happening there.

10-24-2006, 05:30 AM

Thanks for your help. It's probably easier to describe with a pic:



The edge has been created using a large brush with 0% hardness. Click once within the purple and you will get a nice gradiented circle, but on the edge you get a harsh line as if there's no feather. Saving for web creates a smooth grad on screen bizarrely.

I'd like to know if people on CRT monitors can see the harsh line.

This is in CS2, with a SWOP2 CMYK profile and self calibrated settings.

10-24-2006, 05:50 AM

Can't say ive experiened this myself ...

10-24-2006, 06:19 AM

hmm, I don't see any harsh, sharp edges there. Only a slightly darker patch in the lower left (leading up diagonally to the upper left corner) - I guess this is part of the image though.

Clearly, it's not a res problem, and there's no real banding there.

I've and idea Open the saved for web image again in photoshop (with a decent res, enough to zoom in a little if needed) If that appers OK, select a soft edged clone-stamp brush, and try cloning the gradient. Does it clone it exactly? I don't know if I'm deviating too far from the problem here, but trying to narrow it down in my mind to what's causing it and why.

I'm on a macbook (LCD) and that image appears to have a smooth gradient to me. Perhaps it is something to do with calibration, but you seem to really know what you're doing here, which makes it all the more elusive
hmm.....

Can you take a snap shot of the problem area (zoomed out a little) and put it beside the saved for web version? If we also see a difference then, it might be easier to narrow it down.

10-25-2006, 05:30 AM

Hi

It clones identically using the clone stamp.

Here's a screenshot zoomed out a bit:



And here's the same image saved for web:



I can't see a difference in Safari, but the skin tone is slightly darker when you load the jpeg into Photoshop. The edge is still the same.

It's not a major problem, we're just wondering why we can see a pixellated edge where the white background changes to the pale purple of the feather. It's the same on two IMacs and only really affects images that are heavy on magenta.

Are you on an IMac?

10-25-2006, 05:46 AM

I'm running a macbook. Both of those last 2 images appear identical to me (except perhaps for the colour profile - the first has more saturated colours) - the feathering is the same. What are the pixel dimensions of the image?
Does the edge appear pixelated at all zoom sizes? Sometimes, due to heavy jpg compression, large blocks of colour (almost like large pixels) appear on flat shades of colour and subtle gradients. This is sometimes more visible in some tones than others (quickly changing the hue slider can often highlight these problem areas) This is caused by the compression selecting similar colours, and trying to match them to each other in an attempt to cut down on pixel info. I guess it's similar to banding in gradients.

It's just odd that it does that to those tones, and that it only really appears in photoshop... which version are you using, and what were the pixel dimensions?
Does the smudge tool have any affect? (may be better to create the feather as a mask, and smudge the mask )

10-25-2006, 06:03 AM

Sorry, you said you were on a Macbook didn't you.

It's a 2000 x 1700 300dpi image, only ever saved as a TIFF, so the resolution is fine. Blurring makes no difference (I'm in CS2 by the way).

I think it's just a quirk of the IMac LCD screens. I was just wondering if anyone else had come across it, but it seems not.

If the very first image looks normal to you, it must be our screens!