Pixiq

Photographers love to tinker with their images. If there’s too much grain in a photograph, we experiment finding methods to eliminate it. If there’s no grain in our digital images, we work in the digital darkroom to add some. Which brings me to an important point: In some of the small photographs that appear on these page, the grain may be too subtle to appreciate. The best way is to see how the grain looks is try some of these techniques yourself and apply as much or as little grain as you like. When working in the digital darkroom, I use the “20-minute rule.” If you can’t achieve the effect you want in twenty minutes, you probably never will.

If you already have Adobe Photoshop or even the less-than-$100 Photoshop Elements, you can use it’s built-in Grain filter. (Filter > Texture > Grain) That method may be too easy for some pixologists, who like to find harder and more complex ways to create effects that are a little bit different. Tip: Fine arts photographer M.P. Hunt, suggests using Photoshop’s or Elements’ Diffuse Glow filter. (Filters > Distort > Diffuse Glow) This method produces a more subtle grain effect and doesn’t produce the mutilated RGB pixels the Grain filter does.

Nik Software’s Old Photo is a fast way to add grain and convert the image to monochrome while producing a grainy “old newspaper” look. It’s part of their Color Efex Pro package of Photoshop-compatible plug-ins that are available for Mac OS and Microsoft Windows. Old Photo makes it a one-step process to convert the image to monochrome and add grain at the same time. Using Old Photo is simple. Just move the sliders that control the various effects, including grain, and look at the results in the puny Preview Window.