Wondering how often everyone is adding grain to their footage

[Samir Patel]

Now that we have these amazing digital tools I was wondering how often everyone is adding grain to their footage. Do you find yourself adding it all the time. Mostly only for personal projects. What type of grain is everyone's favorite? Filmconvert? Gorilla Grain? Redcine-X built in stuff? I've always wanted to pickup the full version of filmconvert but I always keep putting it off thinking that I probably wouldn't use it all the time anyway and so just been waiting for when the right project came up before making a purchase which didn't get used.

 

[Paul Russell]

I like to add it when I've got to shift down to an 8 bit colour space and the image is full of gradients, like skies. The grain acts like dither and helps to cover banding. Got to be careful when encoding, though, as it can be messed by heavy H.264 compression.

 

[Bill Anderson]

Check out Matt Scott's free "4K film grain" in his Downloads section.
I believe there is also a tutorial on using it.
http://mattscottvisuals.com/

 

[Samir Patel]

Paul thanks for chiming in. I guess whatever I do I should definitely run a bunch of tests through uploading. I guess I would need to have two versions always a direct to digital copy and an online copy to compensate for additional compression.

Bill - Thanks! I totally missed Matt's download. Will check it out.

 

[Marc Wielage]

Here's a few sources with links to grain samples and ideas on how to use them:

http://matthayslett.com/film-look-with-red-footage/
http://cinegrain.com/
http://gorillagrain.com/
http://www.rgrain.com/
http://www.crumplepop.com/
http://www.filmconvert.com/
http://imagenomic.com/rg.aspx

I think you have to use this stuff very carefully, and understand there is no "one size fits all" that will necessarily work for every shot. I also think a little grain goes a long way.

 

[PatrickFaith]

I like to add it when I've got to shift down to an 8 bit colour space and the image is full of gradients, like skies. The grain acts like dither and helps to cover banding. Got to be careful when encoding, though, as it can be messed by heavy H.264 compression.

+1 ... this btw is mandatory with monochrome.

 

[Mark K.]

I've been adding it to most of my grades lately to throw a little extra texture into mid-tones and highlights (I like how it balances out the noise you sometimes get in the shadows, keeps things more cohesive across the frame). I use Filmconvert, just at a small percentage - generally around 35%, which is the point at which it just starts to become visible.

 

[Joel Arvidsson]

Only when matching other footage or in case of banding gradients as stated above. Guess its up to the artist but I have not much love for grain. But perhaps if you want a really gritty feel. We see I keep an open mind and Im actually downloading matt scott's grain now. Going to give it a shoot and see how it looks.

Cheers!

 

[Paramon Ivanovich]

Adding film grain to digital media is a very personal and artistic choice, but i am with Mr. Deakins on that matter

 

[Marc Wielage]

Adding film grain to digital media is a very personal and artistic choice, but i am with Mr. Deakins on that matter

Very interesting interview. :thumbsup: