Many times we talk about grain and noise in photography as if they were the same. However, they are not exactly, although they may seem so at first glance. This is what we are going to talk about today, the difference, how to avoid one or add another and why. Are you interested? I think so, so here we go.
What is noise in photography?
In photography, digital noise is made up of pixels uncontrolled that do not have the color or brightness that they should because a correct exposure has not been made, either due to errors in the shot or due to lack of light.
That is to say, it is the interpretation that the camera makes of the light that it is not capable of capturing.
Noise is often more noticeable in dark areas and makes the photo appear dirty, lose sharpness. In certain types of photos, it is very annoying.
That is why it is something that causes quite a few headaches for some photographers.
This is an example of a photograph taken at ISO 25600 in which the noise is evident even without magnification, however, on the right I leave you an enlarged detail so you can see it better.
Photo with digital noise (ISO 25600) Magnification to see noise detail
Types of digital noise
There are several types of digital noise in photography that you can see here more depth.
I am going to tell you about the ones that you are most interested in knowing, because they are the most frequent and the ones that you can avoid or reduce.
- Luminance noise. It is especially noticeable on surfaces that should be of a uniform color and shows up as variations in brightness. It is usually more evident in areas that are or should be smooth.
Luminance noise Corrected luminance noise
- Color noise or chrominance. It is represented by colored dots that are randomly distributed throughout the image.
Color noise Corrected color noise
- thermal noise. This appears when the sensor gets too hot, for example in long exposures. In the following image we see the noise resulting from a long exposure, in this case about 500 seconds, after other long exposures.
thermal noise
- Gaussian noise. This type of noise appears especially in photographs taken with small sensor cameras, for example, with simple compact or smartphones. It is similar to luminance but is distributed equally throughout the image. Here is an example of a photo taken with a mobile.
Gaussian noise Gaussian noise detail
By the way, if you like to pull your phone to take photos, you will love knowing the mega guide to photographing with your mobile, with all our tips and tricks, which we publish for you on the blog.
Why does noise appear in photos?
There are several reasons why noise can appear in our photographs, these are some of them:
- Low quality or old sensor
- Broken or damaged equipment
- Sensor heating from repeated long exposures
- High ISO values
- Improper exposure and metering
- Lack of light in the scene
How to avoid noise in your next photographs?
To prevent noise from appearing in your photos, you have several options.
In this article we tell you more about ISO in photography and how to avoid noise. For now I leave you with some basic notions:
- The most important thing is to make a good presentation.
- Avoid long exposures or let the sensor cool down.
- Use low ISO values, but not necessarily at the minimum, but at the minimum that allows you to expose correctly.
- Right the histogram.
- Use the camera’s noise reduction function (when convenient, not by default, in some cases it is counterproductive).
So you can see how important a good exposure is, let’s see it with an example.
I’m going to take a photo exposing correctly using a high ISO (1600), and another underexposing to use a minimum ISO (100) and recover in editing.
ISO1600 ISO1OO
Now let’s see an enlargement, on the left the image taken with 1600 ISO, on the right the one that was taken at 100 ISO and recovered the exposure in the processing.
Left at 1600 ISO, right at 100 ISO
Now even more enlarged.
ISO1600ISO100
It looks like magic, right?
Well no, it’s just a correct exposure. So don’t be so afraid to raise the ISO value (knowing the limits, of course).
How to reduce noise in a photo?
The most effective way to reduce noise is to avoid it at the time of shooting. This is synonymous with lack of information, so it is not easy to invent it, it can only be hidden a little.
However, sometimes it is not possible to avoid it. Good because we have made a mistake and we want to solve it (don’t beat yourself up, we are learning and we are human). Either because the photo has a special value or because we want to recover it for whatever reason.
In these cases, we can use photo editing programs.
Assuming, yes, that miracles do not exist. Some photos can be improved, but the unsalvageable cannot be saved.
The easiest noise to eliminate with an editing program is chrominance although, like everything else, it has its effects and color fidelity is lost.
Another effect when reducing noise is that a lot of sharpness is lost, so it is not highly recommended to abuse this reduction if you do not want your photos to look fib.
How to reduce the noise of your photos in Lightroom?
We are going to use this image taken at ISO 6400 to see how to get rid of annoying noise in a photo.
ISO6400
And here a detail of the noise level.
inside the module Revealyou will find the panel Detail. The two types of noise you can reduce in Lightroom are:
- Color noise: As we have already mentioned, they are specks of color that are shown randomly in the image. It is very easy to remove them, you just have to adjust the cursor Colorwhich is 25 by default.
- Luminance noise: in this case the issue is a bit complicated, because as you move the Luminance cursor to the right, the noise disappears, at the same time that detail is lost.
- Luminance: Makes grain disappear
- Detail: recovers to some extent the sharpness that is lost when increasing Luminance
- Contrast: Reduces the plasticky effect caused by the other two settings.
Luminance 0 Color 25 Luminance 0 Color 0 Luminance 65 Color 25 Luminance 65 Color 25 Detail 70
And this would be the result. It looks better, right? How easy has it been?
Seen the noise, we are going to see the grain, what it is and how it influences your photographs.
What is grain in photography?
Grain in photography is related to film from analog cameras. The reels were composed of silver halides, the larger the size, the higher the sensitivity of these films. The size of these halides determine the grain size.
This is a photograph (with “true” grain) taken on analog film. It is a portrait of Gerda Taro.
I speak of “real” grain because nowadays grain is added in processing to add texture. In digital cameras grain does not exist as such, but is part of the editing process.
And it is that, by adding the grain, the photos acquire another meaning. With this, the photographs evoke another era, they are impregnated with nostalgia and different sensations.
It is a way to add style or aesthetics to a photograph. It has a specific intention.
Contrary to noise, which is something that sometimes we have to accept because we have no other choice, the grain is a choice.
Let’s see an example.
The image of the lighthouse on the left is the original as it has been taken. In the right image, in addition to modifying the color, grain has been added.
Original photo Grain edited photo on VSCO
Don’t they look like they’re from different times? Do they evoke different sensations? The grain reminds us of photographs from other years.
How to add grain to your photos?
As I was saying before, adding grain to a photograph gives it texture, style, nostalgia, a vintage effect, etc. It is another way of using visual language to evoke emotions and sensations.
Even the grain we associate with documentary photography since it was when they had to freeze the movement in low light situations and, therefore, they had to use higher sensitivity films.
Today I am going to show you how to add grain with Lightroom and with two other free applications that are very easy to do it with: Snapseed and VSCO.
How to add grain to your photos with Lightroom?
In Lightroom it’s not that adding grain is more difficult than in the other applications, but it’s not a free program.
If you have it or you are going to do with it great, if it is not the case, use any of the following two options.
Add Grain in Lightroom
For add grain with lightroom follow the next steps:
- Go to the module Reveal
- In the pane of effectsinside the tool Granulatedmove the cursor from Quantity on the right. With this gesture you control the amount of grain you want to add. With the value 0 it runs out of grain and to the right you increase.
- The cursors will be activated. Size Y Rugosity.
- Adjust the cursor Size which, as you might guess, controls grain size. If you go above 25, a bluish color is added, it is something that the program does so that the noise reduction is better.
Size 0 Size 100
- Adjust the cursor Rugosity. To the left the grain is more uniform, to the right the grain is more uneven.
Roughness 0 Roughness 100
And now, if you want to finish giving a total retro touch, you can always edit in black and white, but that depends on taste, here we leave it in color, yes, with a slightly more vintage color 😜
Portrait with added grain in Lightroom
How to add grain to your photos with Snapseed?
The first thing you need to do is open your image in the Snapseed app (iOS/ android) and then follow these steps.
- select within Tools > film grain.
- Choose style, you have several to choose from.
- Adjust style intensity (more intensity towards +100, less intensity towards the left or value 0; and the texture.
- The higher the texture value, the more grain.
- Ready to export the image.
Select Film Grain Choose Style Adjust Style Intensity Adjust Texture Export & Done
If you want to know more about how to edit your photos in Snapseed, click on the link we have a tutorial for you.
How to add grain to your photos with VSCO?
I think that the most complicated thing is to be clear about what you want to have with your image and, consequently, add more or less grain because, as you will see, adding grain in VSCO is also very easy, just three steps:
- Open image in VSCO.
- Select the grain tool within the edition.
- Move the cursor to the right until it is to your liking.
Open Image Select Grain Move Cursor
And this would be the result in this case.
Image with grain added in VSCO app
Have you got any…