Using Photoshop to add film grain to digital images.
For all you monoists out there, this is a nice 'n simple method of adding film grain to your images in a non-destructive manner.
Those that can't be bothered to follow the tutorial, I've created an action linked at the end of this tutorial.
Step 1
Create a new layer above your image. You might as well name it too. Also, if you like, you can set the Blend Mode to
Overlay. This will let you preview the effects of steps 4 & 5.
Step 2
Fill the layer with 50% grey. The easiest way is to press
shift+backspace and the following dialogue is shown.
Make sure the Contents drop down is set to
50% Grey
Alternatively you can simply fill the layer with the paint bucket and a colour sent to 50% grey.
Step 3
Add noise to the layer.
Filter |
Noise |
Add Noise
Set the amount to
400% and Distribution to
Uniform
Step 4
The noise looks a bit digital so we need to blur it.
Filter |
Blur |
Gaussian Blur
Choose a value you like. If you set the Blend Mode of the layer to
Overlay in
step 1 then you should be able to see the effect of the blurring.
Around 1.7 pixels seems to do it for me.
Step 5
If you haven't done so in
step 1, set the blend mode of the film grain layer to
Overlay.
It's likely the grain effect is rather strong, use the Opacity slider to lower the amount of effect.
Thats it! Simple or what.
Before:
After:
Photoshop Action
Film Grain.atn
The action will ask you the amount of blur to add. It'll also set the layer opacity to 35%, adjust this as you see fit once it's finished running.
Good luck, have fun,
peel.