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Recreating DSLR grain for compositing
Hi all
I’m experimenting with recreating DSLR footage grain. There are some clients I’ve had who have opted against removing it because they like it. So now if I composite anything into a shot I need to add grain to it to match.
Been trying methods with the Grain and Add Noise effects, and have gotten some “close enough” results, but wondering if anybody else out there has had better success.
Cinematographer / Editor
Synn Studios Inc. -
6 Replies
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I usually precomp some noise with a slight blur then overlay/soft light it onto a composite. Straight noise usually looks too sharp.
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A lot of the time I will take a video file that has some grain you like on it, then use the “Match Grain” on a adjustment layer.
-Raine Vivian
http://www.rainevivian.net
http://www.seaboundesign.com -
Another solution:
You could remove the grain from the footage, then add grain back in over all of it on a new layer. That way the grain matches perfectly!– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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Hello Nicholas,
First of all, there is no such thing as ‘DSLR grain,’ for grain only pertains to film as opposed to digital footage that can only have noise (though various types of it).
Recreating grain and/or noise can be done in a number of ways depending on the budget and the required result. For a DSLR, the most accurate and not so costly solution is just to shoot a 50% grey card with the very same DSLR tuned to the very same aperture/shutter/ISO settings. If lit up properly, the resulting video can be used in AE on an upper layer set to Overlay or Soft Light blending mode.
However, many DSLR-shooters look for something a bit different: they would normally remove noise from their footage and then try to recreate film grain to get an extra cine-like look. This can be done either by built-in AE effects (cheap and fast but not optimal quality-wise) or by applying real film grain scans in exactly the same way as described above. You can buy full size (or download free previews) real film scans from companies like CineGrain, or google for some free samples.
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Thanks for the all of the suggestions!
Personally, I think whoever wants to keep the “noise” in is wacky, but whatever the client wants.
Cinematographer / Editor
Synn Studios Inc.
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