Need Grain

[Alan H. Siegel]

For decades the goal in B&W film photography was to reduce grain, hence the mantra "fine grain!" Paradoxically, I now want to instill grain in some B&W digital photos to impart to them that "old time" look.Can anyone recommend a simple photo editor (not Photoshop) that will enable me to do this? The grain feature in "Photos" doesn't cut it. Thanks.
Alan

 

[ian barber]

I know you mentioned "not photoshop" but not sure if this is because you don't use Photoshop.

If the the other hand you have access to Photoshop, I made a small TRI-XPlugin

Kodak TRI-X Grain | Digital Black And White Photography | Photoshop Plugins & Tutorials

Kodak TRI-X Grain – Professional Photoshop plugin for precise black and white editing. Instant secure download from Digital Black and White Photography |

www.digitalblackandwhite.co.uk

 

[Joanna Carter]

I use DxO PhotoLab with their FilmPack add-on. However, if you already use another RAW editor, the DxO FilmPack is available as a standalone app for TIFF or JPEG files.

 

[Glenn]

Snapseed allows 1% increments of grain from 0% to 100%. The digital image below has around around 60% applied. I use it on my iPad. The app is free to download, works quite well and is intuitive.

Clearly DXO, Photoshop, Affinity etc. are much more flexible (you get what you pay for) but if you are just looking for a simple editor then it is worth trying out.

 

[Alan H. Siegel]

Glenn, thank you. Snapped afforded me exactly the grain I needed for the vintage look I was seeking. My only regret is that it can't be installed on my iMac.

Ian, Thank you. I find that for my limited needs I can usually get what I want from Photos, my Mac editor. When I was a young man I found the Photoshop learning curve too steep. Now that I'm ancient it is beyond contemplation . KISS is now my mantra.

Best,
Alan