As an old photographer, having spent many many hours in the darkroom, I have really come to appreciate AP. For me it works better than LR/PS. Thank you developers.
I am looking for realistic film grain. The Add Noise filter is not suitable.
Some contributors on this forum have referred to LR, doing such a good job. Well, yes they have a nice module with a couple of sliders, the idea is very good, but there it stops. The results are very poor. I will explain why.
In the darkroom you focus on the grain, resulting in a beautiful sharp grain effect. This nice grain effect gives the photograph a false sense of additional sharpness. Grain, by itself always takes away a little bit of detail. Yet the impression of a well enlarged photograph is one of atmosphere and enhanced detail, and let’s be honest, a photograph is made for the eye of the beholder. That’s what it’s all about.
LR’s implementation works exactly the opposite. When you increase the grain size slider, the image (and the grain) will be blurred. This is exactly not what you want to accomplish in the darkroom, and it certainly does not enhance the photograph. There is one company out there, actually using the LR grain engine for there own software and thereby fooling many who don’t really know what grain is supposed to look like.
So, here is an opportunity for the AP developers. This is a niche. A good working solution, implemented in AP will appeal to a large number of photographers.
Peter
