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How to reduce posterization in dark BG?
I am struggling to find a way to reduce the posterization in dark backgrounds in properly exposed subjects . I did not touch the exposure slider on this image.
I process the RAW in DPP, following Arash's guide. This shot has ISO 800 so I set chrominance Noise Reduction to 8. I then move image to CS5 and select the BG and reduce the noise by moving the slider to 8 or 9 or 10. The noise is reduced but then the posterization creeps in. I have tried reducing the amount of NR or using Gaussian Blur or surface blur after NR and it makes it worse.
I have tried using Tonal Contrast in NIK Efex by moving the sliders for shadows and midtones into the negative and that helps a bit but I still see some posterization.Finally, if I use the levels slider on the left side of curve by only 1 or 2 points it really worsens the edges of posterization .
What can I do to eliminate this?
And does any of this NR and or posterization matter for prints ?
Thanks for any light you might shed on this,
Gail