The Problem: Row Banding in Infrared Photos

Modern mirrorless cameras use on-sensor phase-detect autofocus (PDAF), which relies on rows of specialized focus pixels embedded in the sensor. To keep these pixels invisible in your images, the camera applies a factory gain calibration that corrects their brightness back to match the surrounding rows.

That calibration assumes a visible-light spectrum. When the camera is converted to full-spectrum or infrared, the PDAF pixels respond differently than the calibration expects, so the correction no longer matches. The result is faint but persistent periodic horizontal banding—a repeating pattern of slightly brighter or darker rows that is especially visible in smooth skies and foliage.

The Solution

The Fix IR PDAF Banding tool runs a self-calibrating repair on each raw file. Rather than relying on a camera-specific correction table, it detects the affected rows directly from the image, measures how far each one deviates from its clean same-color neighbors, and corrects the gain to remove the banding while leaving genuine detail untouched.

• Camera-agnostic—the banding period and strength are estimated from the image itself, so no per-camera profile is needed
• Works on real sensor data—the repair is applied to the raw mosaic, so Lightroom still demosaics genuine sensor values
• Safe no-op—if no banding is detected, the output is an unmodified copy of your file

Before and After Comparison

The following comparison shows an infrared frame with and without the PDAF banding repair applied:

How to Use

1. Select the raw files you want to process in Lightroom
2. Go to File → Plug-in Extras → Ryan's Raw Tools → Fix IR PDAF Banding
3. The plugin creates a repaired DNG for each photo and imports it back into your catalog
4. Continue editing the repaired DNG with full raw flexibility

Note: If no banding is detected in a photo, the tool reports that and produces an unmodified copy—it never alters images that don't need the correction.