How to create a film grain noise photo effect

• November 7th, 2024
• Photoshop

Are you looking to add a vintage or cinematic look to your photos without leaving Photoshop? Look no further! In this quick tutorial brought to you by Creative Nerds, we’re diving into the easy steps to apply a film grain noise effect to any photo. Let’s transform your images with a classic touch in just a few clicks.

Tutorial details

• Program: Photoshop
• Time estimation: Under 3 minutes
• Difficulty: Easy

Preview

Step 1: Prepare Your Image

Begin by opening your image in Adobe Photoshop. It’s always good practice to work on a duplicate of your original photo to preserve the original file. You can quickly duplicate your image layer by right-clicking the layer in the ‘Layers’ panel and selecting ‘Duplicate Layer…’.

Step 2: Convert to Black and White

Once your layer is duplicated, you should convert the image to black and white. This step is optional, but a monochrome base can enhance the vintage feel of the film grain effect.

Create a new adjustment layer by clicking on the ‘New Adjustment Layer’ icon at the bottom of the ‘Layers’ panel. Choose ‘Black & White’. This adjustment does not destroy color information, so you can toggle the visibility or delete the layer if you change your mind.

Step 3: Add Film Grain

With your photo now in black and white:

1. Make sure the photo layer is selected.
2. Go to ‘Filter’ > ‘Filter Gallery…’ to open the filter options.
3. In the Filter Gallery, select ‘Film Grain’ from the list of effects.

Adjust the settings for the Film Grain effect:

• Grain: Set this to 10 to add a noticeable amount of noise, mimicking the grain found in old film photography.
• Highlight Area: Adjust this to 1. This setting controls the brightness of the highlights in the grain effect, keeping them subtle.
• Intensity: Set the intensity to 6. This specifies how strong the film grain effect will appear on your image.

Click ‘OK’ to apply the filter and see the effect instantly transform your photo.

Conclusion

And there you have it! You’ve successfully added a retro film done-grain noise effect to your photo using Photoshop in just a few simple steps. This effect can be a fantastic way to add character and a timeless quality to your images.

Video Transcript:

Welcome to Creative Nerds in this short Photoshop tutorial, we’ll be sharing with you how you can create a film grain noise effect and apply it to any photo. So let’s start off by creating a new layer adjustment, and we want it to be black and white. We’re then going to duplicate our photo layer, and then we’re going to head over to filter, filter gallery, and then this will bring up some options, and the one that we want to choose is film grain. We want to change the grain to be 10, and then we want the highlight area to be 1, and the intensity to be 6, so that’s okay, and there you go, we’ve created a retro film grain noise effect in a matter of seconds, and this effect can be applied to any photo. Thanks for watching, and stay tuned to Creative Nerds for other quick tips on how to use Photoshop.