What is Color Banding, Its Causes & How to Fix Banding In Video

What's the Color Banding in Videos?

Color banding is a visual effect that appears in large areas where a smooth gradient should exist. Banding looks like heavy bands or blocks of color in your footage, created by adding one image after the other without gradually fading. Instead of a soft color gradient from one tone to another, you will see bands (thus its name), blocks, stripes, or circles of colors in the image or video.

Color banding appears in pictures between two similar colors. Imagine a clear, blue sky: when you look up, you see an outstanding, endless sky. However, when you take a picture, you see hard bands, circles, and blocks of two or three blue tones. It will look like an 8-bit pixel video game. A great example of color banding is the picture below. You can easily find color banding in digital videos in any video editor software and fix it.

What Causes Banding in Videos?

Color banding may appear at any moment during the post-production process, so it's critical to identify its causes first. There are several causes of banding, such as adding effects to your video clips or rendering or compressing them too much. Sometimes, you can also cause co-banding in video during the recording process.

Here are some top reasons why videos have color bands.

Low bit depth

Low bit depth means there isn't enough information to display colors correctly. It is the main reason for video banding. For example, an 8-bit image can only store 256 colors, while a 24-bit image can store over 16 million colors. With a higher bit depth, you can display more eye-catching video content.

Plug-ins for noise reduction

Noise is another reason video can sometimes be affected and cause banding. Almost all video editing software has a noise reduction effect. Users will usually benefit from better clarity. However, noise can sometimes accentuate previously invisible problems, such as banding.

Color Grading and Color Correction

Artificial gradients and color correction filters can also cause more unexpected issues in your videos. They can look great on your screen, but some streaming platforms may not display this color range, so they can create color banding.

Compression

Lossy codecs during compression can create visible banding. For better results, avoid compressing videos when you export them. Some streaming platforms, such as YouTube, Vimeo, and Netflix, can compress videos automatically.

Low Exposure Photography

Your video shooting method also causes banding. The post-production process will usually create banding issues in low-exposure images. Even your camera may present banding, and post-production adjustments can add more banding. In this case, adding effects is necessary to fix the picture and reduce banding. You may also want to learn what is 1080p and 1080i , have a check.

How to Get Rid of Banding in Video?

If you encounter banding in videos, you can easily remove it with any video editing tool. Here are some effective strategies to help you remove banding issues in your videos.

Always use 10-bit or higher-bit depth cameras because high-bit cameras have more color-balancing ability. If you want eye-catching results, you should use a high-quality codec with a high bitrate during recording. So try to use high-quality lossy codecs to avoid banding issues.

If you use Adobe Premiere Pro, you can mask the banding with noise or grain effects of around 1-2%. This will break up the solid color areas and make the gradient smooth without making the noise too obvious.

You can use the Flim Grain tool or UniFab Denoise AI to add Noise Reduction with a slight offset in DaVinci Resolve. Noise reduction will create a natural look and help fix the banding in the video. Using a slight Gaussian Blur to affected areas can also help reduce banding in videos. You can also use high-quality plug-ins such as Red Magic Bullet and Neat Video, which provide advanced tools for dealing with banding video. It is recommended that the shoot be done in proper lighting to prevent loss of details during recording. Always shoot with a higher-bit camera in a high-lighting area to avoid banding issues in your videos.

Best AI Tool to Fix Banding In Videos

There are many ways to remove banding from videos. You can use any video editing tool, but the recommended software is the UniFab Deinterlace AI. This AI-powered software can reduce color banding and give the video a cinematic look. It not only supports color banding but also enhances video quality automatically.

UniFab has many frames to showcase fine details. Every frame has a smooth and natural look. This AI Video Enhancer Software is easy to use because it provides 100% automatic improvements for beginners and experts. You can easily adjust codec, frame rate, resolution, trimming, bit rate, and other settings without experience. It uses AI and matting technology to quickly reduce gradient tracks and unwanted background color banding.

UniFab has fantastic features such as AI-enhanced denoising and HDR conversion. These features help smooth out gradients and enhance overall color quality without hassle. This tool also helps you manage complex scenes, blurred edges, and banding in videos.

UniFab has a robust system with a dedicated graphics card for optimal performance. It offers a 30-day free trial for testing all features. It is the best software not only for fixing video banding but also for video editing to ensure a video looks more professional. You should explore its unique features that will help fix banding in the video. So, try UniFab Deinterlace AI today and remove banding from your videos for free. Enjoy this hassle-free software!