Looking for comments and help

Gordon @ Convergent AV · 05-03-2007, 7:48 PM

I seem to be getting hooked on B+W images and thought I'd go bak and revisit the picture I entered in last months competition. This time instead of doing the raw conversion after a couple of pints late at night hours before the comp ended I thought I'd go back and start from scratch. I was hoping to give it an aged look by adding a sort of film grain to it but I can't seem to get the effect. I just added a gausian noise filter over whole scene.

Here is the before and after images. I think they are both miles better than the one I put in the competition. They have been burnt and resized and the filter added. Any comments as to preference and does anyone have a method for adding film grain to their pics?

Gordon

and noised up

electrolyte · 05-03-2007, 8:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gordon @ Convergent AV

does anyone have a method for adding film grain to their pics?

Hi Gordon. I have recently download Alien Skin's Exposure Fliter for PS. It is brilliant for this kind of thing. It has got lots of presets where it mimics the look of different kinds of film. I particulary like using Ilford 3200 which adds lots of mood and, importantly, grain to the photo.

Download a 30 day trial here: Exposure

HotblackDesiato · 05-03-2007, 8:20 PM

There is, or was, an artistic filter in PS, or at least used to be, that added film grain. I've not used it since PS7 which kinda tells you how much it impressed me! Still if it survived to CS2 i'd guess it may have been improved.

Gordon @ Convergent AV · 05-03-2007, 8:26 PM

Here is the artistic film grain thing tyfi pointed me towards. It's possibly better than the noise I added I think

HCking · 05-03-2007, 8:36 PM

The thing I have found with the photoshop grain is its unlike film grain, as in as much film grain is uniform over the emulsion and photoshop grain isnt.

What I use is actual film grain,

I have taken my favourite film and correctly lit an 18% gray card and taken a picture of it on a film camera with film in my case TRI-X 400. had it developed and then scanned into a digital file, this i open in photoshop as a layer over my desired image and then adjust the opacity to suit what i want.

I tried with your image Gordon, you will see the grain is uniform with no sign of artifacting. (please let me know if you want me to delete it Gordon)

Just my way of doing it.

Gordons Image

thanks Mark

Gordon @ Convergent AV · 05-03-2007, 8:40 PM

Mark,

That is exactly what I was hoping to achieve. The fact that these digital filters have less effect on highlights seems a pretty big failure for them. This is how I'll do it from now on then. Thanks for that insight.

Gordon

HCking · 05-03-2007, 8:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gordon @ Convergent AV

Mark,

That is exactly what I was hoping to achieve. The fact that these digital filters have less effect on highlights seems a pretty big failure for them. This is how I'll do it from now on then. Thanks for that insight.

Gordon

I will upload the tri-x 400 photoshop file and pm you the link so you can download it.

Gordon @ Convergent AV · 05-03-2007, 8:51 PM

What a star!

G

HCking · 05-03-2007, 9:01 PM

Link to Tri-x 400 grain file for photoshop (approx 11.5 mb)

http://www.mediafire.com/?4yyzymiy3mm

cheers

Mark

Liquid101 · 05-03-2007, 9:14 PM

Interesting effect, and a nice way of doing it.

Strange how we spend a fortune on our camera gear trying to get the finest possible images - only to reintroduce grain from a 50 year old film stock

Gordon @ Convergent AV · 05-03-2007, 9:16 PM

dOWNLOADING NOW, THANKS

G

salubrious_k · 06-03-2007, 11:14 AM

Gordon, have a go at using the "fake holga" script that I used on this pic:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonblock/395722965/
(link under the picture)

It creates about 10 layers which you can choose to change the opacity of and I find that a lot of the things it does work well at just mimicking a retro-feel...

cedmondson · 10-03-2007, 8:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HCking

Link to Tri-x 400 grain file for photoshop (approx 11.5 mb)

http://www.mediafire.com/?4yyzymiy3mm

cheers

Mark

Hi,

I took the liberty of downloading this too last week as I thought that it gave a far superior result to the film grain filters in PS and I had a project in mind for it. Unfortunately I now realise that that it was lost with a PC crash midweek. I've just tried to download again but the link no longer works. I know it's a bit cheeky as I wasn't an intended recipient in the first place but I'd be extremely grateful if by some means I could get hold of this again.