Dealing with Color Grain/Noise
p.1 #1Dealing with Color Grain/Noise
How do you clean up the film grain and noise in scans of both slides and negatives? I know some people like that harsh, grainy look, but I'd like to make it as clean and detailed as possible. The red/green/blue/etc. particles are more or less obvious and obnoxious. FWIW there is no B&W film.
Unfortunately the modern software is mostly designed to denoise RAW files.
I cannot easily rescan as many have deteriorated or were lost in the floods many years ago. I don't think my FireBase scanner works with modern hardware anyway.
EBH
Unfortunately the modern software is mostly designed to denoise RAW files.
I cannot easily rescan as many have deteriorated or were lost in the floods many years ago. I don't think my FireBase scanner works with modern hardware anyway.
EBH
Aug 18, 2026 at 08:33 PM
p.1 #2Dealing with Color Grain/Noise
At that point why not take a film-era lens and adapt it to digital?
Aug 19, 2026 at 08:02 PM
p.1 #3Dealing with Color Grain/Noise
Thanks, but I'm looking at E-6 and C-41 images captured 20-30+ years ago, mostly scanned many years ago on Polaroid 35mm and Nikon ED-4000/8000 scanners, and hoping people shooting film today have some TIFF processing workflow that would be relevant. I cannot go back. The places are gone and most people are dead. 
EBH
EBH
Aug 19, 2026 at 11:10 PM
p.1 #4Dealing with Color Grain/Noise
Do you have an example? Is it possible you're seeing sharpening artifacts or sensor noise from the scanning sensor itself?
In any case, noise reduction software tends to work pretty well if you want to get rid of film grain. I just tried a few scans in Adobe Camera RAW, and the basic noise reduction controls did a fine job.
In any case, noise reduction software tends to work pretty well if you want to get rid of film grain. I just tried a few scans in Adobe Camera RAW, and the basic noise reduction controls did a fine job.
Aug 19, 2026 at 11:47 PM
p.1 #5Dealing with Color Grain/Noise
Maybe I misunderstood, but I thought Adobe ACR was only for RAW camera files. Is that incorrect? Normally I use DXO for RAW. I was using Topaz for Denoise, but they abandoned it a few years ago and the Photo AI is wacky plus I read they are going out of business due to Adobe.
I cannot post anything now, but there is the combination of film grain (color particles/dye clouds) and senor noise, though many were scanned with Nikon at 16x sampling rate.
EBH
Edited on Aug 20, 2026 at 08:34 AM · View previous versions
I cannot post anything now, but there is the combination of film grain (color particles/dye clouds) and senor noise, though many were scanned with Nikon at 16x sampling rate.
EBH
Edited on Aug 20, 2026 at 08:34 AM · View previous versions
Aug 20, 2026 at 08:31 AM
p.1 #6Dealing with Color Grain/Noise
EB-1 wrote:
How do you clean up the film grain and noise in scans of both slides and negatives? I know some people like that harsh, grainy look, but I'd like to make it as clean and detailed as possible. The red/green/blue/etc. particles are more or less obvious and obnoxious. FWIW there is no B&W film.
Unfortunately the modern software is mostly designed to denoise RAW files.
I cannot easily rescan as many have deteriorated or were lost in the floods many years ago. I don't think my FireBase scanner works with modern hardware anyway.
EBH
If you have Photoshop you can write an action script to do some cleaning. It involves change modes to LAB mode, "Gaussian" blurring the "Luminosity channel" then changing back to RGB mode. I usually keep the blur between 0.4-0.8 pixels, but sometimes you can go higher - like 1.1-2.3 pixels. I have a series of the saved actions in an "Action Set" so all I have to do is click one on the desired action.
How do you clean up the film grain and noise in scans of both slides and negatives? I know some people like that harsh, grainy look, but I'd like to make it as clean and detailed as possible. The red/green/blue/etc. particles are more or less obvious and obnoxious. FWIW there is no B&W film.
Unfortunately the modern software is mostly designed to denoise RAW files.
I cannot easily rescan as many have deteriorated or were lost in the floods many years ago. I don't think my FireBase scanner works with modern hardware anyway.
EBH
If you have Photoshop you can write an action script to do some cleaning. It involves change modes to LAB mode, "Gaussian" blurring the "Luminosity channel" then changing back to RGB mode. I usually keep the blur between 0.4-0.8 pixels, but sometimes you can go higher - like 1.1-2.3 pixels. I have a series of the saved actions in an "Action Set" so all I have to do is click one on the desired action.
Aug 20, 2026 at 08:34 AM
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p.1 #7Dealing with Color Grain/Noise
EB-1 wrote:
Maybe I misunderstood, but I thought Adobe ACR was only for RAW camera files. Is that incorrect? Normally I use DXO for RAW. I was using Topaz for Denoise, but they abandoned it a few years ago and the Photo AI is wacky plus I read they are going out of business due to Adobe.
I cannot post anything now, but there is the combination of film grain (color particles/dye clouds) and senor noise, though many were scanned with Nikon at 16x sampling rate.
EBH
ACR can be used with JPEG's. The denoising controls seem to do a fine job with grain or a gain/noise combo.
Maybe I misunderstood, but I thought Adobe ACR was only for RAW camera files. Is that incorrect? Normally I use DXO for RAW. I was using Topaz for Denoise, but they abandoned it a few years ago and the Photo AI is wacky plus I read they are going out of business due to Adobe.
I cannot post anything now, but there is the combination of film grain (color particles/dye clouds) and senor noise, though many were scanned with Nikon at 16x sampling rate.
EBH
ACR can be used with JPEG's. The denoising controls seem to do a fine job with grain or a gain/noise combo.
Aug 20, 2026 at 11:22 AM
p.1 #8Dealing with Color Grain/Noise
I use Neat Image PS plug-in for this (also available as a standalone app). It has lots of fine grained controls over how the noise reduction is applied, which makes it good for non-standard use cases like film grain/noise.
Aug 20, 2026 at 12:01 PM
p.1 #9Dealing with Color Grain/Noise
Do you do this at the very start of your work? And going back and forth, flatten or no (If that makes any difference)?
Dave
James Markus wrote:
If you have Photoshop you can write an action script to do some cleaning. It involves change modes to LAB mode, "Gaussian" blurring the "Luminosity channel" then changing back to RGB mode. I usually keep the blur between 0.4-0.8 pixels, but sometimes you can go higher - like 1.1-2.3 pixels. I have a series of the saved actions in an "Action Set" so all I have to do is click one on the desired action.
Dave
James Markus wrote:
If you have Photoshop you can write an action script to do some cleaning. It involves change modes to LAB mode, "Gaussian" blurring the "Luminosity channel" then changing back to RGB mode. I usually keep the blur between 0.4-0.8 pixels, but sometimes you can go higher - like 1.1-2.3 pixels. I have a series of the saved actions in an "Action Set" so all I have to do is click one on the desired action.
Aug 22, 2026 at 07:38 PM
p.1 #10Dealing with Color Grain/Noise
old_hikingman wrote:
Do you do this at the very start of your work? And going back and forth, flatten or no (If that makes any difference)?
Dave
Dave EDIT-Removed link Will start a download of a tiny 563 byte file with an ATN extension. File name is "NR-01_Gaussian_+0.ATN". It is a script file of operations for Photoshop. In your Photoshop on the Actions" palette there is a hamburger (three little horizontal lines stacked up) on the right upper corner of the dialog. Click that menu icon and chose "load actions" and point it to the file you downloaded. The action will now appear in your actions window. at the bottom of that dialog/window is a play icon. Just click play to run the highlighted action on a photo. 16 bit 8 bit raw or jpg will work on all of them. If you click the little triangles in front of the four labelled steps you can see what it does in each of them (no flattened is involved). At the bottom of that same actions dialog/window are buttons to create actions yourself, or groups of actions (sets). Photoshop's scripting language is the thing that is truly powerful about the application. When combined with the "automate" command off the file menu it is amazing how fast and how many photos you can edit.
Edited on Aug 23, 2026 at 02:34 PM · View previous versions
Do you do this at the very start of your work? And going back and forth, flatten or no (If that makes any difference)?
Dave
Dave EDIT-Removed link Will start a download of a tiny 563 byte file with an ATN extension. File name is "NR-01_Gaussian_+0.ATN". It is a script file of operations for Photoshop. In your Photoshop on the Actions" palette there is a hamburger (three little horizontal lines stacked up) on the right upper corner of the dialog. Click that menu icon and chose "load actions" and point it to the file you downloaded. The action will now appear in your actions window. at the bottom of that dialog/window is a play icon. Just click play to run the highlighted action on a photo. 16 bit 8 bit raw or jpg will work on all of them. If you click the little triangles in front of the four labelled steps you can see what it does in each of them (no flattened is involved). At the bottom of that same actions dialog/window are buttons to create actions yourself, or groups of actions (sets). Photoshop's scripting language is the thing that is truly powerful about the application. When combined with the "automate" command off the file menu it is amazing how fast and how many photos you can edit.
Edited on Aug 23, 2026 at 02:34 PM · View previous versions
Aug 22, 2026 at 08:11 PM
p.1 #11Dealing with Color Grain/Noise
Hey Thanks! I’ll give this a look and a go tomorrow
Aug 22, 2026 at 11:29 PM