Luminar NEO: How to use the Film Grain Tool

Film Grain refers to the texture component of the vintage photography film. In modern days, this is often recreated to add an extra vintage feel to the photos. Luminar NEO allows you to do this with their simple yet powerful Film Grain tool.

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In this article:

• What is the Film Grain Tool
• Introducing the Film Grain Tool sliders
• Getting started with the Film Grain Tool
• Video tutorial
• Luminar NEO

What is the Film Grain Tool

The Film Grain tool emulates the structure of analog film stock by introducing random, stylized grain to your image. Keep in mind that grain and noise are different things. Use grain to give your color or black and white photos a cool analog feel.

Introducing the Film Grain Tool

Standard Settings

Amount

This slider controls the degree of graininess in the image.

Size & Roughness

Size

This slider adjusts the size of individual grains.

Roughness

This slider allows you to select the coarseness of the grain.

Getting started with the Film Grain Tool

The film Grain tool should be used towards the end of the photo-editing workflow. The tool itself is very simple to use as it only contains three sliders allowing you to adjust the Amount, Size and Roughness of the grain you will add to your image. Don't forget to use the Grain tool in combination with masking to add this effect to specific areas of your image.

Film Grain Tool: 

• Open the image in Luminar NEO using the Add Photos button (Cmd/Ctrl + O) in the Catalog module (L).
• Move to the Edit module (E).
• Depending on the image, apply a basic development with the tools available in the Essentials section (Develop, Enhance AI, Color).
• Use additional creative tools to edit the image before using the Film Grain tool.
• Open the Film Grain Tool and start by increasing the Amount slider to get the desired effect.
• To fine-tune the result, you can adjust the size and roughness of the grain with the additional sliders available in the tool.

Film Grain Tool video tutorial

Watch the full video tutorial covering all sliders in this tool.

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