Photoshop gradations... not solved?

I have searched and read several threads regarding gradations and banding in CS3 and no one seems to be having the same problem I am having. I can open a simple graphic image from a web design template and the gradations in it are perfect. The problem shows itself when I modify part of the graphic and then must spend an hour trying to blend, blur, soften, airbrush and even start from scratch in order to make my modification to the blended area seem even remotely smooth!!

I have always struggled with this in CS3 and I have looked through all the settings and prefs hoping to find something I missed.

If anyone knows of definitive thread, please direct me, otherwise comments are welcome here.

Thanks

Photoshop gradations... not solved?

Can you show an example?

Send me something if you like... I am interested in such things pretty good at working on them.

Photoshop gradations... not solved?

Have You tried working in 16bit?

And repeating p taz閳?point: please post an example or at least a screenshot with the Layers Panel visible.

I just made this using a small selection area and Modify-%26gt;Feather, which I then Filled a few times with Black (0,0,0) to illustrate the situation.

By filling it repeatedly You are in effect doing something like putting the same masked object on top of itself multiple times 閳?naturally the result suffers.

But even that might look better when done in 16bit.

This was done to illustrate the problem. Normally, I feather and then use the airbrush to blend an area. I will airbrush over the area several times on a very low opacity setting in order to have great control and average the movements of the mouse. Same effect. Using the Blur tool afterwards doesn't improve it much. Here's another example using colors. I will try 16 bit tomorrow. How do I revert back to 8 bit after working in 16? I need to Save for Web and will that automatically get me back to the correct depth?

Thanks

16 bit gives much better results!!! Thanks!!!

I would recommend reducing a flattened copy of the layered file to 8bit.

But Save for Web should reduce to 8bit anyway.

Thanks for your help

They are both banded on my screen..?I like a little bit of noise.

The examples I posted were in 8 bit. Working in 16 bit has improved the quality substantially!

Here's a 16 bit graphic to show the improvement... not perfect, but much better!