Adding Fun and Useful Effects - Photoshop Elements 13: The Missing Manual - page 685

To add noise to a photo, start by selecting the area you want to make noisier. (Using a duplic-
ate layer [Ctrl+J/ ⌘ -J] for the noise is a good idea, since you can always undo changes if
they're on their own layer.) Then, here's what you do:
1. Call up the Add Noise filter .
Go to Filter→Noise→Add Noise to bring up the filter's dialog box.
2. Adjust the filter's settings .
The settings are explained after this list. Use the dialog box's preview area to check
how the changes are affecting your photo.
3. When you're satisfied, click OK .
The Add Noise dialog box has three settings:
▪ Amount controls how heavy the noise will be. Drag the slider right for more noise or left
for less. You can also type in a number; a higher percentage means more noise.
▪ Distribution controls how Elements distributes the noise in the image. The Uniform op-
tion does just what you'd expect—distributes the noise the same all over. Gaussian pro-
duces a more speckled effect. If you're adding noise to duplicate existing noise in a
grainy photo, you probably want Gaussian distribution. For an old-newspaper-photo
look, try Uniform.
▪ Monochromatic limits you to grayscale noise. Take a look at the bottom-left image in
Figure 13-7 , and notice how many more colors you can see in the noise than in the solid
red of the original (top). The bottom-left apple's noise was applied with the Monochro-
matic setting turned off.