Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
One complaint you hear from traditional film photographers is that digital
images look “too clean.” That's probably why plug-ins that add a film grain look
have gotten so popular. The workaround we used to use was to jump over to
Photoshop and use the Add Noise filter, which didn't do a terribly bad job, but
in Lightroom 3 there's a now dedicated feature that brings more realistic film
grain effects without having to leave Lightroom.
Grain Look
Step One:
The film grain effect is popular when
processing B&W photos, so we'll start by
converting to black and white. In the Basic
panel, click on Black & White at the top-
right, then increase the Recovery amount
to 100 (to bring back some sky), and the
Clarity amount to +75. In the Tone Curve
panel, choose
Strong Contrast
from the
Point Curve pop-up menu
TIP: Navigating Panels Using
Keyboard Shortcuts
Want to jump right to a panel without
scrolling? Press
Command-1
to jump
to the Basic panel,
Command-2
for the
Tone Cur ve panel,
Command-3
for the
HSL/Color/Grayscale panel, and so on
(on a PC, you'd use
Ctrl-1
,
Ctrl-2
, etc.,
and these shortcuts will work in each of
the module's right side Panels areas).
Step Two:
Now, go down to the Effects panel (to
really see the grain, you'll first want to
zoom in to a 100% [1:1] view). The Grain
Amount slider does what you'd imagine—
the higher the amount, the more grain
is added to your photo (go easy here—
I don't generally go over 40 as a maxi-
mum, and I usually try to stay between
15 and 30). Here I moved it over to 34.
