Anyone have a recommendation for a film grain filter for Photoshop and/or Lightroom? I am looking to simulate Tri-X (and yes I know the only way to REALLY get that look is to shoot Tri-X). I am finding a number online but I was wondering what folks here might have to say about whether or not they look good. Kevin
Kevin, LR has a very good grain simulator. Nik Silver Effex also has a film and grain simulator that is second to none... don
Links These links have some good free presets and filters. Presetpond | A Community for Sharing Presets for Lightroom, Aperture, Camera Raw & Photoshop Actions Free Products - onOne Software PresetsHeaven | Your source to free Lightroom presets BK
Alien Skin Software: Exposure Maybe a bit overkill if you only want the Tri-X setting. The program mimics a lot of films as well as processing and cross processing.
I'm casting a second vote for Nik Silver Efex Pro. Great way to make digital pictures look like Tri-X or many other emulsions.
Yeah, $250 is a bit steep for what I am looking for. That said, I have always been a fano f Alien Skin Software.
I was looking at the grain preset in LR3. I think I may need to dig into that and see what I can make of it.
Open your image and process first. Apply the grain at the end. Sometimes I sharpen either before or after the grain filter. It works well if ya don't have Silver Effex.
In Photoshop I like to sharpen after adding grain texture - otherwise I find the effect tends to detract from rather than enhance the image.
Nic, it depends how I'm reading the image. I treat everyone like a separate story. It all depends on the info I get and want to show.
I would vote for Silver EFX also. Color EFX from the same company also has a large selection of film grain simulators for color. I think their website offers a free trial. Nik Software, Inc. | Welcome
Yeah, Silver Efex, I was a reluctant adopter, now its pretty much all I use for B&W. They call the grain controls an "engine" rather than filter and it sounds about right because its being added it, rather than something being filtered out. But the control is very fine in terms of both amount and texture. I used the B&W art filter on my epl1 when I first got it last spring, but I found it worked better in the software with a RAW file than the in-camera processing, because even in the relatively lame Olympus software, you could combine the B&W grain fliter with different color filters and get very different effects. And then I started using Aperture and eventually Silver Efex and its sooooo much easier to get it just how you want it... -Ray
I found that the Olympus "grainy film" art filter gave a nice effect in some circumstances but in most cases is far too heavy-handed and usually removes more detail than I would ideally like.
By far the best (most authentic) film grain software is TrueGrain. It's method is significantly different from other programs. It does not emulate, but it uses the grain from actual film scans. For each type of film, it has several film(thus grain) sizes. And all the scans are from the actual films. So your TRI-X grain would really be authentic. Works like a charm. I even fooled some B&W film fanatics with this software and a picture taken with my android phone edit: The only "negative" is that it lacks color films…
I am not sure if anyone has mentioned True Grain. It gives very convincing grain structure and is not very expensive.
True Grain looks very interesting. I'll download the demo and see how I like it. I'd have preferred a Lightroom plug-in but you can't have everything.
I've got a selection of Lightroom presets that have been imported into successive versions of Lightroom. To be honest I never use them, but that's not to say they aren't any good. I have very little idea what all these varieties of genuine film grain are supposed to look like. In any case, SEP is usually my preferred option and I'm clearly not the only one. But the point is that I'm more than willing to 'export' to you the two presets that are meant to mimic Kodak Tri-X 400 and let you decide. One contains an auto exposure setting and the other doesn't. Provide me with an email address by personal message if you want them but don't already possess them.
