Grain/Noise effect

[retrograde]

I agree with the last 2 or 3 posts. The current setup is great for colour only, but an effect that can be applied to individual objects or across many objects or the whole piece in one go and with different parameter settings (size, density, type, etc...) would be the holy grail that would certainly add major kudos to AFD as a heavyweight illustration tool.  Even now if we had the ability to add a noise effect to the whole piece without opening it up in a photo editing app would be awesome. If this is possible now I'd appreciate someone pointing it out. Thanks!

 

EDIT- I just tried the click on the opacity colour circle to get to the noise aspect of one of the points on my gradient and was able to adjust noise in the gradient as told above, so that's cool. A bit buried but nice to discover!

 

:)  - and just so you know a lot of us art types don't necessarily read help files or manuals, it's a disgraceful character flaw I know but what can we do...  ;)

[jgrayillustrate]

I would +1 more intricate noise capabilities, as well as a halftone dot effect/tool/feature.

[retrograde]

A vector based halftone effect would be killer! 

[JimGoshorn]

The best way to add grain to retouching so it closely matches the noise in the image, is the one offered in ACR/Lightroom. Basically it takes 3 settings to do:

 

Intensity of the setting

Size of the grain

Roughness of the grain (is grain hard edged or soft edged)

 

By using these controls, I have been able to match the noise on any image I have had to retouch. I apply ACR to a gray filled layer in overlay mode which is then clipped to the retouch layer. Now if you want to be complete, you could also add a color setting to the grain feature so it would more closely match color film. Being able to apply this to a layer dynamically would be fantastic!

[Rocketdrive]

I currently use Lightroom to add a dash of grain to all my photos. I really like the look, and it is one of the very few things that make LR unique. It is quite astonishing, but I have not found any other software that gives me all of the grain controls - and quality - that LR has.

 

If You have an empty feature slot to fill in Affinity Photo (or that mysterious asset management app I heard about) - please fill it in with high quality grain. It is important to add controls for the size, the amount and the contrast. Yes, very small noise sizes make huge JPGs, but I don't care, storage is cheap these days :)

[vincer]

Any news on this?
This and some kind of blob brush are probably the only things i really miss in Affinity; Sure theres a lot i would love to see added but they would, well add- Halftones and Blob feels like a void, frequently i reach to them and they're not there.

[Frank Jonen]

Here's one from my library that I'd like to see available in a more procedural manner. (attached) Organic patterns are tough to automate though.

 

One thing that'd be great for noise options is an XOR noise for alphas. It only adds noise where alpha is neither 1 nor 0. This helps to blend in complex masks better. Especially when you have the option to sample/learn the noise pattern of the source material.

KODAK VISION2 200T Color Negative Film 5217.ACEScc.exr.zip

[Jimmini]

And another perfect example where a node editor would not only make all this possible at once, it would go far beyond that and allow everyone to adjust this and all other effects in every way physically possible, non-destructively.
A fixed feature set works great up to the point where one needs more control, in which case one can nothing but pray that the developers invest their time to include more options and roll out an update, someday. A node editor would remove this dependency on developers and static effects with fixed sets of parameters, in many cases. You could just create this effect yourself. Furthermore, you could, for example, use the alpha channel as parameter that controls the noise's size, use the green channel of an external image to set the smoothness, or procedurally generate a pattern that adjusts the noise's spread. Then you could use that noise as parameter for a blur filter, or for a filter that you created yourself entirely.

[paolo.limoncelli]

And another perfect example where a node editor would not only make all this possible at once, it would go far beyond that and allow everyone to adjust this and all other effects in every way physically possible, non-destructively.

A fixed feature set works great up to the point where one needs more control, in which case one can nothing but pray that the developers invest their time to include more options and roll out an update, someday. A node editor would remove this dependency on developers and static effects with fixed sets of parameters, in many cases. You could just create this effect yourself. Furthermore, you could, for example, use the alpha channel as parameter that controls the noise's size, use the green channel of an external image to set the smoothness, or procedurally generate a pattern that adjusts the noise's spread. Then you could use that noise as parameter for a blur filter, or for a filter that you created yourself entirely.

 

If you're skilled in maths (more than me... I'm a dog...), together with the Equation Filter and rigging options of Macro maybe something like this could be achieved right now...

I started digging here:

 

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/27627-grain-effect-using-equation-filter/?hl=grain

 

If you want to contribute you're welcome  :)

[Jimmini]

If you're skilled in maths (more than me... I'm a dog...), together with the Equation Filter and rigging options of Macro maybe something like this could be achieved right now...

I started digging here:

 

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/27627-grain-effect-using-equation-filter/?hl=grain

 

If you want to contribute you're welcome  :)

 

Interesting. I somehow managed to overlook this filter. Is there a list of available functions I can use in these equations?

But I doubt I'll be of much help with your filter, which already looks very nice. I'm just barely able to wriggle my way around some mathematical problems.

[PetervL]

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

 

[dominik]

6 hours ago, PetervL said:

I am looking for realistic film grain. The Add Noise filter is not suitable.

 

Hello @PetervL,

 

maybe you want to look into a plugin called NIK Analog Efex Pro. It is part of the NIK Collection which is now a free (and currently abandoned) software plugin suite. And it works (in parts) with APh.

 

Analog Efex has (among others) film grain simulation.

 

Apart from that I would be happy to see a native film grain filter in APh some day 

 

d.

[PetervL]

2 hours ago, dominik said:

 

Hello @PetervL,

 

maybe you want to look into a plugin called NIK Analog Efex Pro. It is part of the NIK Collection which is now a free (and currently abandoned) software plugin suite. And it works (in parts) with APh.

 

Analog Efex has (among others) film grain simulation.

 

Apart from that I would be happy to see a native film grain filter in APh some day 

 

d.

Hi Dominic,

Thank you for your suggestion to use the NIK collection. I am familiar with it, actually using some of its lovely features. I do however not use the film grain simulation. The quality is not very good, really just noise instead of (random) grain. The only one I can think of doing a pretty good job is DXO FilmPack. Unfortunately the plugin does not work with AP.

Thanks anyway,

Peter

 

 

[dominik]

10 hours ago, PetervL said:

The quality is not very good, really just noise instead of (random) grain. The only one I can think of doing a pretty good job is DXO FilmPack. Unfortunately the plugin does not work with AP.

 

 

I understand. Since NIK is now owned by DXO we can hope (nothing more) that at one point they are opening their plugins for APh. It will be interesting to see what they come up with once NIK get's an update.

 

d.

[PetervL]

4 hours ago, dominik said:

 

I understand. Since NIK is now owned by DXO we can hope (nothing more) that at one point they are opening their plugins for APh. It will be interesting to see what they come up with once NIK get's an update.

 

d.

Thanks Dominic, yes I am looking forward to these developments.

gr. Peter

[Zahra]

I'm a bit late to the convo but..

You could go to filters > Noise > Add Noise

Don't forget to select the layer you want to add the noise to.

xx