A question about colour banding and the ocean

[CrowingHen]

I recently visited the seaside and took some photos with the ocean in the background.  I notice that the colour of the water has sharp changes, depending on the depth, salinity (mixed with fresh water), and currents.   It's pretty neat.

 

But now I'm processing the photos, and it looks like the digital artifact "colour banding".  But the images matches what I saw on the day.  

 

This is a snippet of the out-of-focus background to the photo.

 

(the dots on the upper right side are birds - I'll get rid of them in post)

 

Is quality control going to be sad about the colour change in the ocean?  If they are, I'll crop out most of the ocean, but I think it is nice to keep it in as it's some lovely copy-space for words.

Edited December 14, 2019 by CrowingHen
clarity

[Harry Harrison]

I think it's pretty hard to tell without seeing the whole image but to me it doesn't actually look like banding, that's where even gradations of tone are turned into stepped changes, not quite the same as your picture I think.

[jodyko]

26 minutes ago, Harry Harrison said:

I think it's pretty hard to tell without seeing the whole image but to me it doesn't actually look like banding, that's where even gradations of tone are turned into stepped changes, not quite the same as your picture I think.

I agree but think I'd remove the two spots 2/3 up on right hand side.

[M.Chapman]

Looks OK to me. Perhaps post a larger crop to be sure? But do remove the spots.

 

Mark

Edited December 14, 2019 by M.Chapman

[CrowingHen]

Thank you very much for having a look.

 

Is this better?

 

Looking back at my notes, the spots in the background are crab traps, not birds.  I'll fix them before uploading.  

 

I'm still at the stage where I'm learning to see the digital artifacts, so I can't see if the ocean is okay for quality control or not. 

[M.Chapman]

4 hours ago, CrowingHen said:

Thank you very much for having a look.

 

Is this better?

 

Looking back at my notes, the spots in the background are crab traps, not birds.  I'll fix them before uploading.  

 

I'm still at the stage where I'm learning to see the digital artifacts, so I can't see if the ocean is okay for quality control or not. 

 

Thanks for the larger crop,  no problem with the ocean IMO, apart from losing the crab traps (spots) and possibly levelling/removing lens distortion curvature of the horizon.

 

Mark

[CrowingHen]

That's great news.

Thank you so much for having a look and your thoughts.

[Steve F]

On 14/12/2019 at 17:20, CrowingHen said:

  I notice that the colour of the water has sharp changes, depending on the depth, salinity (mixed with fresh water), and currents.   It's pretty neat.

 

Hey,

I really wouldn't worry about it. It's well known to people that have any experience with the sea that you can get banding as you mention above. And it looks natural in your photo. Colour banding would normally be a transition from one shade to another and would be smoother, not random thin diagonal lines that are separated like in your picture.

 

[CrowingHen]

I submitted one from the batch to another agency that reviews each photo individually and it made it through fine.  I'm going to finish processing the images from that day and upload them here.  

 

Thanks guys.  I really appreciate the help.  

[Ed Rooney]

Back in the day when I wrote travel copy, I had a signature phrase: "blue-green waters . . ."  The sea is any colour you want it to be.