Content-Aware Grain

Tom Schum wrote:

Erik Baumgartner wrote:

Tom Schum wrote:

Hmm,. I don't typically add grain to my B&W images, but the content aware thing sounds interesting. Honestly though, the Lightroom fake grain isn't content aware, but to my eye it looks pretty good if you don't go nuts with it.

...and here's another option to try. This is the same thing, but with Topaz Sharpen adding the grain, it's a single slider, but does appear to be content aware (minimally affects the highlights). It's subtle, but I think it looks quite authentic.

Thanks for trying a few things and posting your results!

The grain tools you use seem quite like the tools available in Photoshop Elements 2020. The Topaz definitely seems better to me than these but not much. The problem is that the added grain is a little bit too even.

It looks too much like digital noise because it is too even. This is the main problem with most grain tools in my opinion. Even the grain option in my X-T3 is this way!

There is no doubt in my mind that the content-aware tool in Exposure X6 has plenty of room for improvement. One improvement would be to specify the grain size and the luminance boundaries for each of the three areas on the histogram. But, so far as I know, there is no other content-aware tool out there with even the mediocre controls found in Exposure X6.

Does the Topaz grain tool give you any options? Can you post a screenshot?

The big problem for me is the $149 price for Exposure X6. It would be nice to be able to purchase this grain tool at a lower cost as a plug-in. I really have no use at all for all the other features of this software!

Sharpen A.I. only has a single slider, but they may have other software that offers more control, not sure about that. I never actually tried the feature before, thought it was worth a try. Like I said, I don’t usually add grain. I will sometimes apply NR selectively and let the noise be the grain if I’m going for a grittier/analog sort of look.