Terminating pixelated gradient stripes

[ogremydeadbody]

Hello,
I have downloaded a file from Adobe Stock, which at first glance seemed okay, but when I started tuning the colors with the color/vibrance adjustment layer I saw that the photo has a lot of annoying pixelated stripes in the gradients of the background. (I also turned down the brightness in the attached file so they would be more visible)
What would be the easiest way to get rid of these? Is it even possible? This is a rather large file, so I would prefer a solution that isn't too memory consuming but I'll take what I can get.
Thanks in advance.

 

[JeffK]

Maybe it's my old eyes or my monitors - I just didn't see a lot of pixelelation. MIght be an easier comparison if we could see the original compared to the image you posted above.
- Jeff

 

[IamSam]

I agree with Jeff in that I don't see any pixelation. Everything I see looks intentional and part of the overall effect.

This is not pixelated. It's an intended texture added to the effect. Of course it would help to see the original image.

 

[thebestcpu]

Hi @ogremydeadbody
Without having a section of the original image I am just providing my best SWAG at the issue and how to solve the problem.
Note that the eye/brain combination is most sensitive to luminosity differences as opposed to color differences.
Using adjustments that change the color of the image can also change the luminosity. So images that had subtle changes in coloring at the same luminosity make end up with Luminosity bands when changing the color.
Assuming this is the case for you image, there are two approaches to solve the problem
1) To avoid the bands to begin with, on the adjustment Layers adjusting color, change the blend mode to Color. This will preserve the luminosity of the original Layer underneath while changing the color. This is probably the simplest way to go

2)You can also correct that banding after the fact. This has a few more steps involved yet works reasonable well. It is the complement of approach #1 where you hold the color constant and adjust the luminosity of specific colors to remove the banding. There are many ways to do this yet here is one example approach
- Above your image, add a Black and White Adjustment Layer and set the blend to Color
- Adjust the B&W color sliders to remove the banding and hold the overall luminosity. In this case I lower the yellows and increased the reds until the bands were minimized

This approach can be done most any color adjustment Layer as well as ACR yet will stop here to see if this info is sufficient.
Its not perfect and you can add masking to make the adjustments on a limited basis in the image.
Hope this helps.
John Wheeler

 

[ogremydeadbody]

Thanks for the replies, I suppose pixelation wasn't the right term to use, but when I posted this I didn't know how else to describe this effect. John Wheeler is right, it was the gradient banding I wanted to get rid of.
It's alright if the banding doesn't disappear completely, but I would like it to be less noticeable since I plan to print this out in the future(which makes it even worse to work with since it's meant to be in CMYK, but considering I can't rely on a printer to give me the exact same colors I see on the computer screen I'm not too worried about it). I'll try out both methods and see what works best in this scenario.
I would post the original image here but I don't know if I can since it's a stock image I had to pay for.

 

[JeffK]

I would post the original image here but I don't know if I can since it's a stock image I had to pay for.

License restrictions vary by site. But if you're comfortable with providing a portion of the edited file, provide the same unedited portion of the file for comparison. If the image that you post is unrecognizable as part of a whole, then I believe fair use kicks in. Still up to you. I'm/we are appreciative of your respect for licensed/copyrighted material.
In any case, glad that you have some resolution to your issue...no pun intended...