Nifty Program

[Broke]

Hi All,

In poking around I found the following program:
True Grain
http://grubbasoftware.com/

There's a good demo video clip for preview.
Looks like a pretty promising idea, though the grain library needs expanding (and its a little expensive and resource hungry)...
Thought there might be some interest in it.

Cheers,

Jim

 

[Eric T]

That is VERY interesting. I realize that I must be asthetically challenged because I prefer the look of the digital images without the processing to the film look.
Nevertheless, this is a very interesting program and could have many uses.
Eric

 

[zeitz]

At $ 300, it's more than a "little expensive".

 

[Richard Marks]

Jeepers its expensive!
Its actually sampling grain. I wonder how hard this would be to emulate.
I guess it might be worth scanning some gray areas from various films and selecting this as a fill layer in PS and then blending with the original. One could even photograph some mid grey tones onto film and use this. Personally Id recommend the M6 for those film moments. Its a nice compliment to the M8.

 

[Trius]

Way cool. I predict the price will come down, but I don't think $300 is unreasonable for professional application.

 

[etrigan63]

Ummm, I can do the same thing with Bibble Pro + Andy Pro. $129 for Bibble + $20 for Andy Pro. PC/Mac/Linux.

 

[ChipNovaMac]

Like the program, but the cost leaves this non-pro cold. Given the shallow number of grain choices I would have pegged this program at the $50 to $75 level - maybe $100 on the out limits. For $300 I would have expected every B&W and Ilford film option, as well as some color options of Kodak and Fuji Pro color neg options as well.

 

[cmogi10]

Echoing the prior opinions...
Cool program, had a lot of fun with it. It left my impressed but then I realized it cost 300 dollars. Yikes...sorry for me it's just not worth it.

 

[Broke]

I've been playing with it tonight with RAW files from my G7 -- certainly improves on the aesthetic of those files, though it would be nice to see prints.

Rather expensive indeed.

JB

 

[pphuang]

There is a program called "Exposure" sold by Alien Skin Software that does something similar and works as a photoshop plugin. Its a little less expensive (although still not cheap 😡 ), and has many more film/grain choices, both in B&W and Color. It also allows you to directly adjust the grain yourself if you do not like the "cookbook" results. I compared a file processed with the two programs, and the results between the two programs look pretty close to me.

 

[Keith]

Hey ... I want to know when "scratched negative" and "faded negative" are being released? I'll be in the que for those for sure! 😛

 

[Revolucion Artistico]

I'll second exposure by alien skin, I don't personally own it , yet, but I've had the opurtunity to play around with it quite a bit and it has quite an extensive library, very customizable and a lot of fun to boot. You can even do stuff like give a color image T-max grain, etc.

 

[zeitz]

$ 249 is still in the expensive category. But at least it has more functionality than just grain.

 

[chuckcars]

Three hundred smackers is way to high for an application that you can do the same thing with photoshop. A complete waste of money and time.

 

[pphuang]

For those that have tried to add "grain" to an image in photoshop by using the standard noise filters, you will see very quickly that the results look nothing like film. These "film simulation" programs are actually quite sophisticated. You should download the demo and play around with it for a while, and compare the results with a scanned negative. They actually try and reproduce/recontruct the actual grain structure from the real thing. Its not just adding noise. The characteristics of the grain changes depending on the tonal range of the photo, just what you would expect with film. Personally, I think that they do a pretty credible job, but take a look and decide for yourself...🙂

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

At $ 300, it's more than a "little expensive".

Oy! I'll second that. Besides, the "noise" of the M8 at ISO 1250 and 2500 give B&W images the same effect; very nicely, if you can tame it from a DNG file. That's why I thought it was a little ironic to see the image on an M8 as part of the logo.

$300 -- ouch. $90, maybe.

 

[Photog9001]

actually, i was impressed by their approach. measuring color response, s-curve etc., and leaving it so that the user has full control over these parameters is how it should be done imo (and bibble's andy is nothing in that direction, though perhaps a decent b&w converter). not sure if this is how alien skin's exposure does it, but if i was in the buisness of converting digi imgs to b&w, i'd try it out for sure.

 

[MikeL]

Hey ... I want to know when "scratched negative" and "faded negative" are being released? I'll be in the que for those for sure! 😛

I'm waiting for their "Dust" plug-in. Not only do you get faux grain, you get the experience of using the spot-healing brush in Photoshop. Combined, these two experiences give you a near true-to-life experience of scanning various film types.

For an additional $50, for a limited time, you can get a plug-in that will simulate what happens when you forget Digital ICE is on when scanning silver-based negatives.

Totally worth it.

 

[Trius]

Oy! I'll second that. Besides, the "noise" of the M8 at ISO 1250 and 2500 give B&W images the same effect; very nicely, if you can tame it from a DNG file. That's why I thought it was a little ironic to see the image on an M8 as part of the logo.

$300 -- ouch. $90, maybe.

True Grain = $300
M8 ~= $5000 + lens(es)

Yeah, so the the M8 in the masthead (IF it is an M8 ... not so sure, but I'm no Leica ID expert) is a bit ironic. And if you own an M8 you likely don't need this software.

Whether or not $300 is the "right" price will be determined by the market, but I like the interface ... full control, yet clean and straightforward. That's worth real dollars to me.

Not endorsing, no connection, etc.

 

[quadtones]

Consider DxO filmpack

Consider DxO filmpack

I had used Grainsurgery plug-in previously, but it ran a bit slowly on my new Intel-chipped Mac. Have you considered DxO labs new FilmPack software? It is available as a plug in or free-standing, costs about 100- US, and with a special offer they are running currently, I paid $84- for it. It has a good range of grain-emulation choices, and is adaptable, with intensity ranges, etc.

Norm