Heresy--adding grain to digital images

[Pieter12]

I am looking for the best way to add some grain to color digital images, to take off some of the digital curse when making larger prints. I don't need to simulate any particular film look, just want to add convincing color film grain. I have used DXO Filmpack in the past, but the version I have no longer works on my current computer. Buying the current version seems like a bit of overkill just for grain. Is there any other software or technique in photoshop that might work for color?

 

[sruddy]

If you have PS I assume you have LRC. The effects panel has a grain slider and you may find presets for film grain as well.

 

[markjwyatt]

Grain in digital prints is not always as effective as real grain. Because in digital prints, grain is noise (random), while in film images, grain IS the image (and thus not random noise). The Fujifilm ACROS simulation processed on-camera is said to generate a more realistic grain pattern based on the image, but I am not sure of the extent of its effectiveness.

 

[sruddy]

Last time I looked, which may have been three years ago LRC had generic film grain in addition to the generic grain in the effects panel. I us a plugin called NIK by DXO. It has film specific grain simulations.

 

[Pieter12]

Last time I looked, which may have been three years ago LRC had generic film grain in addition to the generic grain in the effects panel. I us a plugin called NIK by DXO. It has film specific grain simulations.

The NIK plug-in is only for black and white, I believe. The lightroom grain is OK, a bit generic. I will compare it to what DXO's film effects and do for grain only as I have downloaded their software as a trial.

 

[amam]

What kind of grain are you looking for ? Do you have any "film" with that grain? The easiest way to get color film grain for your own use is to cross process rolls of color film in black and white developer and sample that.

 

[Pieter12]

What kind of grain are you looking for ? Do you have any "film" with that grain? The easiest way to get color film grain for your own use is to cross process rolls of color film in black and white developer and sample that.

Good idea. I have some older Portra 160--I wonder what the concentration and development time would be in Rodinal? I guess I'll need to do some research.

 

[MattKing]

If you want emulate colour film grain, most likely it is the de cloud "grain" you are wanting to emulate, not the grain you see when developing the film as black and white.

 

[amam]

Good idea. I have some older Portra 160--I wonder what the concentration and development time would be in Rodinal? I guess I'll need to do some research.

You might considering push developing and doing a regular dilution of Rodinal (forgive me I have never used Rodinal so I do not have even a suggestion).

If you want emulate colour film grain, most likely it is the de cloud "grain" you are wanting to emulate, not the grain you see when developing the film as black and white.

Grain is grain, the dude wants grain. Grain is "film" I don't think anyone inspecting the grain of his DIGITAL HOAX is going to remove the magnifying glass and say
"Pieter12, you have deceived us this isn't dye cloud grain this is grain grain." Maybe I am wrong, Pieter12 have fun with your DIGITAL HOAX! and be careful who you show your photographs to.

 

[MattKing]

Actually, if you want to try emulating a particular grain, try it both ways - sample the dye clouds, and sample the black and white developed film grain.
The dye cloud sampling will probably look more like what you expect from colour Portra 160, but you might just prefer the different grain from the black and white version.

 

[LolaColor]

I've been working very hard recently on emulating the film look for digital cameras and have settled on a grain method that's very close. First let's take a look at some film grain, shot at one stop intervals, scanned at 24MP and presented here at 100% magnification. Top row is the "digital" version, the average RGB values of the extracted film scans in the row below:

I think that most methods of simulating film grain involve taking a grain scan that's been normalised to an average of 128 RGB and then applying an Overlay blend mode. When we do that we get this, and it's very apparent that them middle grey patch is bang on but the amount of grain in the shadows and highlights is not:

Now, here's my method using a grain scan and a PS action. The amount of grain in the shadows and highlights of the digital row (top) is much closer to the film scan (bottom):

Here's how I do it in sRGB colour space in Photoshop:

Acquire a scan of film grain and make sure that it averages out at 128, 128, 128 RGB
Convert this and digital file to sRGB
Place grain layer over the digital file and resize if necessary
Change blending mode to Soft Light
Duplicate grain layer twice so now there are three Soft Light grain layers (the first two of these will take care of midtones and highlights)
Select the last grain layer which will deal with shadows and apply the following effects (not adjustment layers, we only want to alter this third grain layer)
Add HSL effect: Saturation +50
Add Color Balance effect: Yellow midtones -30
This gives use a highly saturated, and slightly warmed grain layer for the shadows
Then double click to bring up Layer Style menu
We're looking for Blend If
Leave "This Layer" at its default but set "Underlying Layer" to 0 0/85. So you're bringing the white slider down to 85, then Alt click to split that slider and bring the left portion all the way down to 0
Depending on the sharpness and resolution of the grain scan and the resolution of the digital image you might want to slightly blur the digital file. None of the fine details in the digital should be smaller/sharper than the actual grain.

That's it, all done! If you record the above as an action (use File>Place Embedded to import grain file) then you can batch apply this to folder of images. Duplicate it and double click the Place command in the action when you want to use different grain.

Let's have a look at a real world example.

Digital file with Portra 160 film emulation:

The same file with Portra 160 grain added as per the instructions above:

Kodak Portra 160 film scan:

 

[sruddy]

Nik color efex pro has real film simulation including grain adjustment see image article showing grain in a film simulation. https://lenscraft.co.uk/photography-blog/nik-collection-2-5-released-by-dxo/

 

[amam]

I've been working very hard recently on emulating the film look for digital cameras and have settled on a grain method that's very close. First let's take a look at some film grain, shot at one stop intervals, scanned at 24MP and presented here at 100% magnification. Top row is the "digital" version, the average RGB values of the extracted film scans in the row below:

View attachment 305532


I think that most methods of simulating film grain involve taking a grain scan that's been normalised to an average of 128 RGB and then applying an Overlay blend mode. When we do that we get this, and it's very apparent that them middle grey patch is bang on but the amount of grain in the shadows and highlights is not:

View attachment 305533


Now, here's my method using a grain scan and a PS action. The amount of grain in the shadows and highlights of the digital row (top) is much closer to the film scan (bottom):

View attachment 305534


Here's how I do it in sRGB colour space in Photoshop:

Acquire a scan of film grain and make sure that it averages out at 128, 128, 128 RGB
Convert this and digital file to sRGB
Place grain layer over the digital file and resize if necessary
Change blending mode to Soft Light
Duplicate grain layer twice so now there are three Soft Light grain layers (the first two of these will take care of midtones and highlights)
Select the last grain layer which will deal with shadows and apply the following effects (not adjustment layers, we only want to alter this third grain layer)
Add HSL effect: Saturation +50
Add Color Balance effect: Yellow midtones -30
This gives use a highly saturated, and slightly warmed grain layer for the shadows
Then double click to bring up Layer Style menu
We're looking for Blend If
Leave "This Layer" at its default but set "Underlying Layer" to 0 0/85. So you're bringing the white slider down to 85, then Alt click to split that slider and bring the left portion all the way down to 0
Depending on the sharpness and resolution of the grain scan and the resolution of the digital image you might want to slightly blur the digital file. None of the fine details in the digital should be smaller/sharper than the actual grain.

That's it, all done! If you record the above as an action (use File>Place Embedded to import grain file) then you can batch apply this to folder of images. Duplicate it and double click the Place command in the action when you want to use different grain.

Let's have a look at a real world example.

Digital file with Portra 160 film emulation:

View attachment 305546


The same file with Portra 160 grain added as per the instructions above:

View attachment 305547


Kodak Portra 160 film scan:

View attachment 305548

FANTASTIC!! thank you for this post !

 

[LolaColor]

Here's a grain file if anyone wants to give it a go:



35mm Portra 400 exposed at +1

EDIT: click through to Google Drive to download the 24MP original

 

[Pieter12]

Sorry for the late reply. I downloaded you file and applied it to a digital image. It works well, at least for this one. I am not trying to fool anyone, just like the look of film grain vs digital noise for large prints. Here's a detail:

 

[faberryman]

I am looking for the best way to add some grain to color digital images, to take off some of the digital curse when making larger prints.

Can you describe the "digital curse" and explain how using grain will ameliorate it? For you, what is a "larger" print?

 

[Pieter12]

Can you describe the "digital curse" and explain how using grain will ameliorate it? For you, what is a "larger" print?

Sure. Digital has a crispness and smoothness that borders on looking airbrushed to me. Grain/dye cloud texture breaks that down and feels more organic. I can only print up to 13x19, but I have outsourced 20x30 prints. I don't have use or space for anything larger at this point.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

I am looking for the best way to add some grain to color digital images, to take off some of the digital curse when making larger prints. I don't need to simulate any particular film look, just want to add convincing color film grain. I have used DXO Filmpack in the past, but the version I have no longer works on my current computer. Buying the current version seems like a bit of overkill just for grain. Is there any other software or technique in photoshop that might work for color?

Experiment with adding noise in Photoshop!

 

[markjwyatt]

Come home to film?

Grain/Dye-Clouds (Film) = The Image (organic)- can look noisy of course
Digital Grain = Noise (Not the image)- is always noise, never the image (FujiX ACROS in-camera sim may be more related to the image)

 

[Pieter12]

Come home to film?

Grain/Dye-Clouds (Film) = The Image (organic)- can look noisy of course
Digital Grain = Noise (Not the image)- is always noise, never the image (FujiX ACROS in-camera sim may be more related to the image)

I like to be able to work the image in the darkroom, but I don't print color in the darkroom, just black and white. Therefore, color is shot digital and I want to bring it some of the organic look of my black and white darkroom prints.

 

[wiltw]

I've been working very hard recently on emulating the film look for digital cameras and have settled on a grain method that's very close. First let's take a look at some film grain, shot at one stop intervals, scanned at 24MP and presented here at 100% magnification. Top row is the "digital" version, the average RGB values of the extracted film scans in the row below:

View attachment 305532


I think that most methods of simulating film grain involve taking a grain scan that's been normalised to an average of 128 RGB and then applying an Overlay blend mode. When we do that we get this, and it's very apparent that them middle grey patch is bang on but the amount of grain in the shadows and highlights is not:

View attachment 305533


Now, here's my method using a grain scan and a PS action. The amount of grain in the shadows and highlights of the digital row (top) is much closer to the film scan (bottom):

View attachment 305534

Kudos...you have reproduced what I have observed with real grain in B&W film like the original Tri-X (not necessarily what can be seen in the reformulated film of more modern times)...grain density increases with tonal density.

 

[LolaColor]

Here's a detail

It looks good! I'm glad it's working for you. Reading over my post I don't think my instructions were as clear as they could be but you seem to have figured it out.

 

[jtk]

Sure. Digital has a crispness and smoothness that borders on looking airbrushed to me. Grain/dye cloud texture breaks that down and feels more organic. I can only print up to 13x19, but I have outsourced 20x30 prints. I don't have use or space for anything larger at this point.

Pieter, is your "digital curse" the result of your printer/paper combination?

For example, some matte papers soften grain. Perhaps try a better printer (e.g. my experience with Canon Pro series) and/or "fibre" paper such as Gold Fibre Silk (Epson) or the identical Simply Elegant Gold Fiber brand..those are more gloss than matte but are nothing like "semi-gloss". I think the fiber/fibre texture virtually eliminates glare, while somehow employing a glossy coating.

I like grain and/or dye cloud and have no need to fake it...an aesthetic choice. Interestingly, there's a LOT of grain to be found in good scans of old Kodachromes.

 

[jtk]

Along this line, perhaps: My Pentax K70 dslr has several appearance options, two of which are HDR versions. One of those is almost/sometimes too extreme... these options don't fake grain because (I assume) Pentax seems committed to a certain type of market...there's a Pentax-look.

Another sometimes useful/interesting option is "Clear"..which enhances bright areas without blowing out less bright areas.

Those three are automatic with a flip of the switch...they don't lose detail.

 

[Pieter12]

Along this line, perhaps: My Pentax K70 dslr has several appearance options, two of which are HDR versions. One of those is almost/sometimes too extreme... these options don't fake grain because (I assume) Pentax seems committed to a certain type of market...there's a Pentax-look.

I never use film simulations, just adjust raw files to my liking and add grain. The paper I have settled on is Canson Baryta Photgraphique, a satin sheet. I have tried matte papers and more textured papers, but the colors vary and lose intensity as compared to my monitor calibration. For black and white, the nicest reasonably-priced option has been Hahnemuhle fiber matte printed by Cone Editions.