Flexible Film Grain Effect

Thought I would post a little tip to a quick, nice and very flexible way to work visually pleasing film grain into an edit. I haven't been too happy with the plug-ins I've tried - they've either been to rigid in they way they apply grain or make to much changes in the luminance levels of the image.

So here goes another option which I use in Premiere, but I guess it is equally applicable on other editing platforms.

First we have the start image - for illustration I'll be using an untouched still outtake from some video footage I had (click to download large image):

And here goes the procedure:

First copy your clip and place it on the video layer above your base clip properly aligned in time. The top layer will serve as your adjustable noise layer.

Now add the native effects of Premiere of Noise, Color Balance (HLS) and Gaussian Blur, and as a starter adjust the parameters of the filters as shown in the screenshot below:

The filters need to be applied in the order shown on the image; the HSL filter has to be applied after the noise filter to pull down the saturation in the colors of the generated noise, and the blur filter likewise should be applied at last on both filters.

Noise filter
First of all I apply the noise filter and tick off 'Clip Result Values'. This choice is a matter of taste in the particular project - by ticking 'Clip Result Values' your grain will manifest normally in the midtones and blend more in at higher and lower luminance values. This might be what you're going for, but if you are applying blending modes like overlay or softlight on the noise layer it will also increase the overall contrast. By unticking this box you'll start off with a much more neutral noise layer that won't change the luminance make-up of your grading. Here I also pull down the amount of noise to 90% just to bring a little image info from the original image through.

HSL filter
The HSL filter is then used to pull down the saturation so the noise color is more pleasing to the eye.

Gaussian Blur filter
The blur filter is used to smooth the grain out a bit and also determine the size. The more radius - the larger grain.

Blending
Finally I work out a fitting blending mode and opacity setting for the layer. For this example I've used overlay at 38% opacity. By using overlay and the relatively neutral settings on the noise filter, I get noise that moulds nicely into the image without upsetting any additional grading done. Here I'd also try out different settings and clipping the values of the noise filter making for a more dramatic application of the noise layer (quite nice for BW).

So here's a screenshot with grain (click for high res):

And here with clipped noise values and otherwise same settings:

Finally, keep in mind these shots weren't graded - normally this step would also come towards the end of the grading workflow.