High speed film grain

Add instant drama to your photos

The typical response to any kind of grain in a photo is to pay a visit to the Reduce Noise filter and smooth it out. But there is a special kind of grain that occurs traditionally in high-speed films (generally ISO ratings of 800 and above) that not only gives great result, but is also easy to re-create in Photoshop!

With the high-speed films, the emulsion is packed with larger grains of silver halide, which gives them a greater sensitivity to light. The higher the speed, the better the film is for night photography and the more granular the print becomes. This is known as High Speed Film Grain. We won’t lie to you – there is great potential for this effect to go too far and result in a snowstorm, but when used in moderation it can add a punch to flagging photos.

We’ve set given two options below for working with this look. You’ll see how to apply it to a colour image in addition to black and white. The source photo used isn’t anything amazing – it is a moderate macro shot but you can see how applying a film grain effect, especially in the black-and-white example, can help boost something mediocre into something far more interesting.

If you’d like to have a go at this effect, we have provided the original file, in addition to the final colour and black-and-white versions. You can download them from here!

Film grain – part 1 (colour)

Start with your colour image and create a layer above it. Fill the layer with 50% grey (Edit>Fill), then add 15% Noise (Filter>Noise>Add Noise). Change the blend mode to Overlay and Opacity to 40%. Finally, duplicate this film grain layer. You should now have two film grain layers which, when applied, provide a colour film grain.

Film grain – part 2 (black and white)

Next, to quickly convert the image to a black-and-white film grain, change the top film grain layer’s blend mode to Color, and Opacity to 100%. Now you can strengthen the grain by raising the bottom film grain layer’s opacity, or reduce the effect by lowering the opacity. Somewhere around 90% is a good middle ground.