“Btw if someone notices that your detail is not so great that means your photograph stinks”. This is the biggest takeaway for me from this video! Thanks for putting up another amazing video Omar.
I vividly recall back in the 80s when "grain" was a dirty word in photography, especially amongst Advertising, Commercial and in particular, Stock shooters. The dream back then was a grainless film, so everyone flocked to K64 or even K25 (Kodachrome for the youngsters out there), but the fact that these were "slow" films made them useless with poorly lit venues (without a tripod or other support), especially for action work. So, now we have our dream of "grainless" images (well practically grainless) and now we want the grain back, strange how sentiments change.
I use grain weak at high iso to get more micro contrast back along the lines in my photos. Usually it works better in BW, because you skip the old colour noise also. I always keep NR -4. I prefer detail to the mushy wax. You can get more perceptual detail with grain at high iso. That's my "I shoot JPEG." perspective anyway.
The way I sharpen a RAF image in Lightroom is to use the sharpening figures as follows: amount 30-35 (40 max), radius no higher than 1.2, and detail 75-85. I also have used with great success Iridient Digital’s X-Transformer in conjunction with Lightroom. I only use X-Transformer with images I wish to export for printing.I do my whole workflow: RAFS imported into Lightroom, culling of images, and images are color corrected. The RAFs that I want to actually want to print are then converted to DNGs in X-Transformer. I then import the DNGs with the same file names as the desired files and then I sync settings. I then export export from the DNGs. For those not willing to leave the Lightroom camp, that is the best option with regards to working with RAFs. Capture One is far better when it comes to color and sharpening than anything else I have ever used in term of RAF file conversions to Tiffs or JPEGs. I love your channel and your content. Please keep up the great work!
Best damn (excuse the language) video ever! You are hitting your sweet spot my friend. You don't even know me but I consider you a friend. Godspeed sir!
Thanx for the comparison, I always wondered how ISO grain vs grain setting worked. One thing still not clear: what if I set noise reduction to -4 and set grain to strong, then shoot at high ISO? Does the 2 grain add up? Thanx
I agree not to use in-camera grain removal. If you must do anything do it in post I reckon. Personally I think a little grain can be stylish. Here is a wee trick I started doing if you have to do some intense cropping which reduces the resolution significantly. After you scale back up the resolution, add a bit of post-grain. You'll get an effect of it being slightly higher resolution than it should be... I guess the higher resolution dots give it that detailed texture effect? Just do it very gently. Not that we should be doing such mad level of cropping but sometimes you just have to for the right framing.
Black and white photography clearly looks better than color under the "influence" of grain. In my opinion, our opinion (at least mine) is heavily influenced by the great photos of the past. An historical bias.
As I recall you always used the slowest film you could get away with to avoid grain. Using a fast film would limit your options if you wanted to do an enlargement for instance. A faster film tended to be used only if you had no choice, and now some people choose to deliberately introduce grain lol.
Agree that CaptureOne has pretty good grain, but I still think Fuji JPEG ISO noise is the most beautiful in the digital world. Espescially with ACROS which is just gorgous! This is pretty subjective of course.
Your favorite movie is "Raiders of the Lost Ark"? Me too! And I didn't even know (or remember that my Fuji had a "grain" setting...will have to try it out. Thanks, Omar, for giving me a new holiday project...
Another interesting and informative video. Thanks for doing all the work to put it together. It seems most (all?) of your videos focus on photographic techniques and observations focusing (pardon the pun) on folks who view their final images on a phone or computer screen. Do you print any of your work? If so, maybe make some videos examining techniques as they relate to photographers who print their work. Thanks again for all you do to promote photography!
Hi Omar, between these 16mm f2.8, 23mm f2 & 35mm f2.. which one is the sharpest? I would like to buy my first prime lens into my fuji line up. Currently I'm using the 18-55mm with my xt30. Thanks
With which model you shot those pictures ? Im getting a hold on xt20 for filming my live musical performances at low light, do you have grain setting on xt20 im really interested by it ?
hi! very usefull review, but what happened if you take a photo with strong grain setting with iso 6400 or 12800? does the ISO grain take advantage on the grain setting or the contrary? thanks a lot.
When I first bought my X-T2 I was a bit disappointed how much grain it produced even at low ISO.... then I noticed the grain setting. Noise Reduction goes from -4 to 4, but it doesn't actually say noise reduction is off at -4, so I think when shooting JPEG even at -4 there is some minimal noise reduction applied. This is why I think you see less grain in JPEG than RAW. Lastly, noise is a placebo - it doesn't actually make the photo sharper.
It's not a placebo, it's more of an optical quirk. The grain creates perceptual detail by contrast along the lines in an image. It just separates elements by drawing focused attention to the line with little points of contrast. Much like how contrast sliders increase perceptual detail. Or high micro contrast lenses give that 3D pop perceptual detail.
I just buy fujifilm.tx4 and i was train to get . Dynamic range %400 its work but i have lots grain ..i dont want grain .. My grain efect also off How can i getready that grain out ?
Also, adding noise is chronologically the LAST thing you want to do when editing (alongside sharpening). Specially after reducing your image to smaller sizes. Noise WILL be noticeable in Instagram IF you add noise in the picture in it's final size. If you ad noise and then resize, it will be most probably gone.
@@ogonzilla Ah, but the beauty of the Acros sim is that as you increase the ISO, it changes the characteristic of the noise. I actually like this idea. I've heard that the Classic Neg in the XPro 3 also looks at settings parameters and changes its response in look too. Looking forward to trying this out myself.
To me grain is only useful for printing since you can't really see it on insta. Unless it's a thick grain bw edit. The only technical benefit of using it for insta would be to stop banding in a uniform sky
Please help me. I use Fujifilm XT30 and i always end up shooting photo with noice ( grain ). I don’t want any noice in my photo; How to do that with proper ISO, shutter speed and aperture? Thank you in advance
If you can't shoot low iso because of light conditions and subject movement - or you don't have a tripod - shoot RAW and appy noise cancellation using your software (for Fuji I use the SILKY PIX raw file converter, which is for free) If I shoot jpg, I always use NR=-4 and try to live with the noise... which can only be seen in 100% pixel peeping mode anyway.
It's so funny so many "photographers" (or: Pixel peepers) complain about noise at hi iso - but nobody complains about loss of dynamic range! I shoot low-iso to avoid loss of dynamic range, I care a f**k (sorry) about noise. noice? nose? no?
You said Grain so many times... I feel like a horse who is really hungry for some GRAIN! i have a my grain. i have grain hair. my groin hurts.... oy vey.
I spent about 45 years trying to keep grain in my negatives to a minimum. Now all those digital photographers want to put grain back into their photos. I don't get it. Me it is still about keeping grain, or noise, out of my images. Though when I get out the Contex G1 and load a roll of Tri-X into it I don't worry about the grain. That's because all those wanta'-to-be photographers want to see grain. So be it. It's D-76 at standard times. That should do it. Yes I process my own film and then use the Nikon PS-2 to get the best into digital for easy printing. Ain't the digital age grand.
