'Grid' Appearing on Image after Processing

[Eightysevens]

I'm not sure I'm posting in the correct area of the forum for this issue, please advise me if not.

Equipment: Nikon D7000, Tokina 11-16mm. Settings: 1/400sec, f9,0 ISO320. NEF RAW.

Work flow: LR6 for lens correction, chromatic aberration correction & basic exposure balance > Perfect Exposure for exposure refinement > Viveza 2 > Silver Efex Pro 2.

For each process stage I set for a copy to be used of the previous stage.

At the end of this my image has a grid 'imprinted' in it. I have not encountered this before using this workflow.

I've noticed the grid is slightly off-centre, from when I level-corrected the horizon, which seems to imply it is part of the original unprocessed image, & most likely enhanced through the processing stages.

So I have now discovered that it happens with using either or Perfect Exposure & Efex softwares. It seems to be only prominent in the original images underexposed areas.

 

[Hal P Anderson]

Your "grid" looks like JPEG artifacts.

For each process stage I set for a copy to be used of the previous stage.

Are you creating a bunch of intermediate JPEGs? Could it be that in your previous use of this workflow that you used TIFFs as intermediate stages, and hence didn't amplify the artifacts?

 

[Eightysevens]

Your "grid" looks like JPEG artifacts.



Are you creating a bunch of intermediate JPEGs? Could it be that in your previous use of this workflow that you used TIFFs as intermediate stages, and hence didn't amplify the artifacts?

Thanks for your reply Hal. All the intermediary stage copies are TIFFs.

 

[Victoria Bampton]

I'd wonder about a patterned noise that's just being massively enhanced by the processing that's being done. When's it showing up - in Nik?

 

[Johan Elzenga]

I'm thinking about the same thing. I don't really see a 'grid' in the image when viewing your post on my iPad, but when I zoom in I do see a vage pattern in the noise. If you use Lightroom - Perfect Exposure - Viveza - Nik Silver Efex, that doesn't really surprise me. Do you really need four different editors to get this result?

 

[Eightysevens]

I'd wonder about a patterned noise that's just being massively enhanced by the processing that's being done. When's it showing up - in Nik?

Thank you for your response Victoria. This, along with concentric rippling/tearing is occuring when the initial copy is made to use in either Efex or Perfect Exposure (that's before I have made any adjustments within the plug-in). At this stage I have usually just made a preset lens correction, auto-corrected chromatic aberration, made basic exposure adjustments & cropped. It is only occuring in about 20-30% of images & seems to be only on underexposed photographs. Of course, further processing only enhances the artefacts.

 

[Eightysevens]

I'm thinking about the same thing. I don't really see a 'grid' in the image when viewing your post on my iPad, but when I zoom in I do see a vage pattern in the noise. If you use Lightroom - Perfect Exposure - Viveza - Nik Silver Efex, that doesn't really surprise me. Do you really need four different editors to get this result?

Thanks for your reply Johan. This, along with concentric rippling/tearing is occuring when the initial copy is made to use in either Efex or Perfect Exposure (that's before I have made any adjustments within the plug-in). At this stage I have usually just made a preset lens correction, auto-corrected chromatic aberration, made basic exposure adjustments & cropped. It is only occuring in about 20-30% of images & seems to be only on underexposed photographs. Of course, further processing only enhances the artefacts.

I have used this work flow for many images without such odd results. It just began happening today.