How do you like grain?

I like grains that add to the photo. Add what?

1. Texture, grains that enhances detail where you expect to see details. For example in hair, cloths, walls, streets, smoke.

2. Crispness/Sharpness, I'm sure there's a more sophisticated word for it, but I like photos that are crisp when the subject warrants it. Without grain, the photo becomes static, not engaging.

3. Etherealness, grain can be subtle, it can also be delicate. I've seen lanscape photos of misty meadows that are beatifully enhanced by visible grains.

As a side note, grain affects toned photos differently than it does neutral B&W. If you want to see some fascinating grains structures, search for Lith prints. I have just started with this printing method, and I am hooked. I have some new print samples, but haven't scanned them yet.
 
What's not to like with grain? It is the thing in film that we work with, one of the primary considerations we make when we pick up a camera to shoot. As far as what I prefer with regard to grain that depends on what I'm shooting. If I didn't like grain, I wouldn't be shooting film. :)


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shadowfox said:
I like grains that add to the photo. Add what?

1. Texture, grains that enhances detail where you expect to see details. For example in hair, cloths, walls, streets, smoke.

2. Crispness/Sharpness, I'm sure there's a more sophisticated word for it, but I like photos that are crisp when the subject warrants it. Without grain, the photo becomes static, not engaging.

3. Etherealness, grain can be subtle, it can also be delicate. I've seen lanscape photos of misty meadows that are beatifully enhanced by visible grains.

As a side note, grain affects toned photos differently than it does neutral B&W. If you want to see some fascinating grains structures, search for Lith prints. I have just started with this printing method, and I am hooked. I have some new print samples, but haven't scanned them yet.
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Good points, Will... It's strange the way grain can make an image be stronger precisely because of the ways grain contrasts with the smoothness of our real world and our vision... When I see grain, just like when I see B&W instead of color, I don't know why I feel the image is another thing, different from what it represents... I don't feel the same with a grayscale image without grain... I know this sounds absurd... This is absurd, but grain affects my perception: I don't feel the same in front of a pushed Tri-X print, than in front of the same image shot with another smoother media and printed without grain. I just don't know why...

Cheers,

Juan
 
oftheherd said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointillism
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Indeed. ;) I've loved Signac since I was a kid.

Paul Signac, The Port of Saint-Tropez
Signac_The_Port_of_Saint-Tropez.jpg


Nick Warzin, cranberry juice
 
Juan Valdenebro said:
I don't feel the same with a grayscale image without grain... I know this sounds absurd... This is absurd, but grain affects my perception: I don't feel the same in front of a pushed Tri-X print, than in front of the same image shot with another smoother media and printed without grain. I just don't know why...

Cheers,

Juan
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To me, grain gives an image structure... it fills in space nicely. I don't know how to explain it, but it just looks right.
 
I used to shoot nothing but Panatomic-X in Microdol.

picture.php


Ektar 25 when it was out.

Grain is an artifact in an image, and I always tried to avoid it.
 
During my first years of film development I used Technical Pan film in Technidol for no grain and normal contrast... And also Pyro for masking grain on several films... But more than a decade ago I fell in love with grain... And yet I'm in the thick of it! :)

Cheers,

Juan
 
As it's been stated, I prefer the grainy look in situations where I need to portray a certain mood. I typed a sentence trying to explain what that mood I'm referring to, but to no avail.
 
I like grain.

I think it adds a better sense of reality to my images (if that makes sense)

Experimenting with my development techniques using tri-x and rodinal. Haven't really found my magic formula yet.
Tried developng tri-x in rodinal at 24 degrees for 11 minutes the other day...... pretty good results with nice grains imho
 
I've posted that in another thread, too, so forgive the duplicate. But, since a few months I've been looking for a certain look, defined by the grain, and feel I hit the nail right on the head with this one:

1012740778_2gPDf-O.jpg


Fog and Rodinal help :)
 
A great photograph... Apart from the exquisite tone and the emotive scene and light, I really like its composition... There's a natural order without being a square... After the easy visual entrance to the subject there's that point up to the left adding convergence of horizon lines and forces, and that "drama" is softly released when eyes float back down and to the right over all that wide and peaceful water... So dynamic and delicate at the same time... Wonderful image, Roland.

Cheers,

Juan
 
Here we go, a Lith print I just did two days ago:

5019135047_4f6396051b_z.jpg


Grain really defines this print and gave it both texture and depth. This will sound tacky, but the print looks better in person, the above scan is a lesser representation.

If you read about 'infectious development' concept behind Lith printing, you'd see the correlation with our discussion about grain.
 
Juan Valdenebro said:
This is absurd, but grain affects my perception: I don't feel the same in front of a pushed Tri-X print, than in front of the same image shot with another smoother media and printed without grain. I just don't know why...

Cheers,

Juan
Click to expand...

I don't think it's absurd at all, Juan. I think grain gives our brain a work out to figure out and enjoy an image.

In other words, a smooth, grainless B&W makes our brain yawn.

But I like grainless photo too sometimes, depending on the subject/scene.
 
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