How do you add gradients together?

[meris]

If I want to blend a few gradients together, I would think of this:

 

 

plus

 

With the masks supposedly cancelling each other it should be a blend of 1 into 2.

But it doesn't seem to do that in real life. You get bands forming in the middle part.

How would I make an uneven gradient?

[Damien Symonds]

Are there supposed to be images?  I can't see any.

[meris]

argh I pasted in and it looked fine but it doesn't save....

I mean I'd make layers like this, with a gradient in the mask going opposite directions, or even circular gradients in the mask.

[Damien Symonds]

I need more context.  What are you trying to create, exactly?

[meris]

I' m creating a blank wall which has different lights faling on it. It may have 1 gradient going up and down, but also light falloff going from L-R. And faint hotspots that may be from downlights.

It only needs to be monochrome.

Or sometimes I'm trying to blend a fake wall with a real like your extending bg tutorial.

Edited July 3, 2017 by meris

[Damien Symonds]

Definitely DON'T use gradients on the masks.  The masks must remain all white.

Use as many gradient layers as you need.  Maybe you'll wish to put them on a blend mode, such as "Multiply" or "Screen", but in some cases "Normal" mode will be fine.

Make sure you make good use of transparency in the gradients.

I want to help you more, I really do, but I need to see what you have in mind.

DO NOT USE MASKS.  I can't stress this enough.

[Damien Symonds]

I trust you've read this, and watched the video?  https://www.damiensymonds.net/preventing-banding-in-backdrops/

[meris]

Oh yes, that's my go-to now for replacing bg.

When should we use masks?

[Damien Symonds]

When you're masking the end result around a subject.

But you're not doing that in this case, right?  You're just creating a whole fake wall?

[meris]

Yes full wall in this case. I've masked out the subject on another layer. Putting a wall underneath, and a noise layer.

But in some cases I have no transparency in the gradients . If I'm copying colors around the L & R of a subject, which are different because of the light positions, both bgs are a vertical gradient in that case.

[Damien Symonds]

For.the.love.of.God.can.you.show.me.what.you're.working.on.

[meris]

It's just any gradient. Even this horizontal with transparency makes some radial bands on the BR

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x64h4hkp5ibgfjc/test.rar?dl=0

[Damien Symonds]

I can't open rar files.  Please just upload it normally.