Grain minimisation in PP?

Do you remove grain after scanning?

  • Always! It's part of my workflow!

    Votes: 1 5.0%

  • Never! Burn the digital heretic!

    Votes: 12 60.0%

  • Sometimes on purpose - it can get too much

    Votes: 4 20.0%

  • Sometimes by accident - when correcting other things

    Votes: 1 5.0%

  • I'm a smartass with a 5x4" camera so dont worry about grain

    Votes: 2 10.0%
  • Total voters
    20
C

Cuchulainn

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Brian
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So, based on BigYin and Menthel's discussion on strong/weak grained films in the your pics thread, I thought I'd stick up a poll. Is removing grain from an image after scanning always a sin? Or appropriate for some images? Or just all part of your standard workflow?

Since I can easily imagine some people getting het up, and it's my thread, only rule is that "whatever you do, it's all good" - please no "just shoot digital then"/"in the old days darkrooms did 20 times worse tricks" flamewars. I just want to see who does what and whether I'm missing any neat tricks!
 
If anything, my processing increases grain/aliasing effects at the point where I do any sharpening :|
 
I don't actually remove grain while editing, though I will attempt to minimise its knock-on effects on occasion. By this I mean that grain in itself isn't really that bad, but the artifacts it can create if careless or heavy handed sharpening is employed look awful imho.

When it comes to sharpening, rather than use the more normal filter/sharpen/smart sharpen or unsharp mask, with film I find myself more and more often using a High Pass overlay layer, as I find it just seems to be a little more forgiving with film grain - plus as a overlay layer you can dial the opacity down if it looks a little harsh - or use a layer mask to perform selective degrees of sharpening on different areas of a shot.
 
I've found that an aggressive mask in Lightroom coupled with a large (~2 pixel) radius on the sharpening setting also allows edge enhancement without the grain going too crazy.

I did have a night shot that I was scanning yesterday that, when I tweaked everything else, including getting rid of the scanner noise, was left with no grain, despite it being a 400 iso film. It's actually a nice effect, but I don't think I'd use it too often on purpose.
 
How embarrassing, I clicked the wrong bloody option...lol. Oops
 
It's like trying to herd cats, getting people in F&C to do what you've asked...

it's either because we're such a bunch of rugged individualists or

we're just a bunch of awkward beggars!
 
Gandhi said:
Can we have an option for:

I shoot 5x4 so grain is never really an issue? ;)

Please?
Click to expand...


I was going to say the same but M/F :lol:

I think this is largely a 35mm issue, whilst grain can be a spoiler on 120, I think its much easier to factor it in or out with film choice and developing than it is with smaller formats.

To answer the question, I don't remove grain ever..:)
 
I like film grain for the sort of things I do, however if I was shooting for National Geographic I could easily get very annoyed by it.
 
Hahahahahahahahahahahah!

That brought a smile to a dreary Monday afternoon! Some things never change :D which reminds me, who do I see about getting my user title changed back from the slightly derogatory one I have at the moment?

But yes, I do shoot 35mm sometimes as well and grain has always been a bit of a non-issue, it's either there or isn't and when it is, it's a function of the film speed/dev process and is something I have chosen to have there by electing to use that particular set of variables.

And it looks better than digital noise.
 
There's grain reduction settings in the Vuescan scanner software I use, I tried it out once but couldn't see that it made any real sort of difference so haven't touched it since. Anyway I think a bit of grain is a good thing, it adds space, texture and atmosphere to a photo, exactly all the things digital tends to lack.
 
I don't remove it. Seems a step too far for me. I only generally try to correct what is lost in scanning personally.
 
Whats the point? You shoot film only to make it look like digital?
You can guess which way I voted ;)

(More interesting is the massive amount of bad scans you see...it's called black and white for a reason...)
 
Gandhi said:
Hahahahahahahahahahahah!

That brought a smile to a dreary Monday afternoon! Some things never change :D

Glad to be of service ;)

which reminds me, who do I see about getting my user title changed back from the slightly derogatory one I have at the moment?

I'm still a newb at this Mod'ing stuff - but one thing I do know, is if you ask for your name changing one of two things will happen - 1. it'll stay the same for ever and a day or 2. It'll change to something even more derogatory. Please don't ask how I know :lol:

But yes, I do shoot 35mm sometimes as well and grain has always been a bit of a non-issue, it's either there or isn't and when it is, it's a function of the film speed/dev process and is something I have chosen to have there by electing to use that particular set of variables.

Exactly - if i've loaded with 1600iso B&W it's because I WANT grain - why would I want to minimise it. If however i've gone with Acros 100 it's because I want that particular characteristic. I just tweak the digital part of my hybrid process to not overblow what's already there

And it looks better than digital noise.

Amen to that Brother!
Click to expand...
 
I've always disliked grain...it aint natural, if you woke up in the morning and saw everything grainy you'd visit the doctors and if your TV set looked grainy you'd sling it in the council dump and if..........................................
Same argument against unsharp shots ;)
 
I tend to shoot slow colour films or slightly fast ones on M/F cameras and I really don't like grain in colour film. However grain in black and white can look really good depending on the subject.

But if I have grain then I don't remove. Of course scanning at high dpi will excentuate the grain of most films.
 
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