Banding Problem

[Wally]

Hi Damien, I am wondering what would be the best approach to fix the banding issue I have in this image.  I have about 8 to do.  I have read a few of your articles on banding but I believe this banding is a bit different (maybe the approach is the same regardless).  Some Canon camera models have this known interference issue when using electronic shutter mode in a room with led lights.  I have since leaned that there is an "anti flicker" mode in my camera to help deal with this but it is of little help to me now.  I did try and follow your tutorial on replacing the background using gradients with very limited success.  The results I get aren't great and I think I would struggle to replicate consistent results over multiple images.  Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated. 

[Damien Symonds]

Mate, so sorry about my delayed reply.

Yes, I do have a different suggestion for you.  It's easier, but it ONLY works when your subject doesn't encroach over the edge of your backdrop.

STEP 1: Duplicate the Background layer.

STEP 2: Use the marquee tool to select the first check of undesirable background:

STEP 3: Go to Edit>Fill, and choose "Content Aware":

STEP 4: Press OK and it will fill the area with generic backdrop colour:

STEP 5: Do the same on the other side - select the chunk, Edit>Fill, OK:

STEP 6: Use the lasso tool to select around the subject:

STEP 7:  Again, Edit>Fill with Content Aware:

STEP 8:  Deselect, then apply enough Gaussian Blur to your satisfaction:

(IMPORTANT NOTE:  Your number will be a lot higher than mine, since I was doing this demonstration on the web-sized file.)

STEP 9: Add a mask to the blurred layer, and mask it around the subject.  Hopefully you won't need too much precision, but check very carefully that you haven't gone onto the person:

STEP 10:  Add the noise layer, the same way you did when you were adding a gradient layer. 

Let me know how you go with this.

[Wally]

How does this look?  (different shot, same issue)  The edges aren't perfect but I will be cropping the shot anyway.

[Damien Symonds]

That's odd.  I wonder why the edges didn't work?

[Wally]

I have no idea.  Maybe I was a little sloppy with my marquee tool.  How many pixels of feathering should I have my marquee tool set to?

[Damien Symonds]

Oh, that explains it.

Zero feathering.  None at all.

[Wally]

Thank you.  I'm getting much better results with zero feathering.  Another question.  What is the difference between the EDIT>FILL>CONTENT AWARE and just right clicking a selection and choosing CONTENT AWARE.  They seem to give very different results.  

[Damien Symonds]

Honestly, I don't know.

You're right, the other one is a disaster.