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Merlin3
Inspiring
September 30, 2024
Question

What method match noise in existing photo to added image ?

  • September 30, 2024
  • 3 replies
  • 3755 views

Hi,

I have a link saved to the answer but old links from 10 yrs ago or so are no longer functional, forum wasnt called ecosystem, whatever that actually means !....so start again !

I have taken an extract of a figure from one photo and pasted it into another image beside a boat, scaled to correct height, it doesnt belong, despite blurring edges and giving same blur overall, and matching HSL,  it needs to have the same amount of grain or noise as the image its now in, its lacking such.

There is 'add noise' but it has no control over size of the noise, or pattern. it gives too fine a noise with well defined edges to each pixel, its like coloured sand versus pebbles.

I try for monochromatic which at least removes the unauthentic coloured single pixels nothing like any image I have seen, certainly this one. It has no blur of the noise either which the command also could do with.

With that its nothing like the larger noise visible in the boat image next to my addition. boat noise more like a pot of fishermans maggots by comparison.

I look for the control over the noise size, there is none, even in latest Photoshop as a friend looks and finds its not changed in 20 years. I am CS6.

Now this is basic fundamental stuff, anyone adding one image into another needs this control. yet still Adobe havent got it.

I do add one image into another and dread this stage as they dont match, needing noise controls.

 

I think someone showed me how to sample the recipient photo and apply its noise size and noise pattern to the incoming image,. Links dont work anymore forum broken them.

So how does one sample the boat noise and apply its pattern and size to the incoming image of a human ?

image attached

Cheers

 

Merlin

This topic has been closed for replies.

3 replies

Stephen Marsh
Community Expert
Stephen MarshCommunity Expert
Community Expert
October 2, 2024

Here is a very quick example of artificial noise, in this case with a 4:1 sized noise layer. Perhaps 6:1 or 8:1 would be better... But the idea here is to magnify the noise, blur it etc. Adobe Camera Raw or the Camera Raw Filter can also add noise/grain to scale.

 

 

Is it a 100% match? No! Is it better? I would say yes...

 

My background is prepress, when printed using an AM or FM screen, the noise result is closer to viewing at 25% than it is at 100% in Photoshop where 1 image pixel is mapped to 1 monitor pixel.

 

I have attached a layered PSD for clarity.

D Fosse
Community Expert
D FosseCommunity Expert
Community Expert
October 1, 2024

I've found that the following formula usually works well for emulating standard sensor noise in an ISO 100-400 image:

 

  1. Add noise amount 1.3 % luminance noise (monchromatic checked)
  2. Add noise amount 1.0 % chroma noise (monochromatic unchecked)
  3. Gaussian blur radius 0.2 or 0.3 pixels.

 

Sample at 200%:

 

(Edit - it obviously also depends on sensor resolution. The above works for 45 - 60 MP).

 

M
Merlin3Author
Inspiring
October 1, 2024

Hi,

Thanks D Fosse, I will also try that. and report back on how it looks.

 

Stephen, I am a little lost having run the action it creates a layer, but then...

not sure when in the process I get to select an area that needs sampling, in fact the boat has large areas of 'off white' (HSB 72%B)  to his left, with no detail on them., ideal for sampling.

How should I indicate the area to the action ?

Each action runs one step and stops. Not sure how I have the layer apply the effect over just him, etc.

Can you give me a step by step on this ?

 

Cheers

 

Merlin

Stephen Marsh
Community Expert
Stephen MarshCommunity Expert
Community Expert
October 1, 2024
quote

Stephen, I am a little lost having run the action it creates a layer, but then...

not sure when in the process I get to select an area that needs sampling


By @Merlin3

 

It doesn't.

 

There were two separate parts to my previous reply.

 

In the first part, I commented on how one may extract a large flat area of grain using the "High Pass" filter, or by using a common retouching technique called "Frequency Separation". I expected that you would research these keyword clues for more information on these topics.

 

In the second part, I also commented that when I used to do a lot of retouching on scanned film that I had to work with grain and provided an action that I used to work with for you to explore. This action has no relationship to the first part of my post about "capturing existing grain from an image".

 

Both parts of my post are similar in that this introduces the concept of a "50% grey filled layer" and an "appropriate blending mode (overlay, soft light etc) where this value is treated as neutral/null, allowing tones lighter or darker than 50% to be applied to the underlying image independently of the base image.

 

Apologies for the confusion.

    Stephen Marsh
    Community Expert
    Stephen MarshCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 30, 2024

    @Merlin3 

     

    What you mention sounds like finding a large flat area of an image grain with no/little contrast and then extracting the texture for blending with the high pass filter or other methods similar to "frequency separation". This could possibly be extended into a seamless pattern, however it would be good to have a large area for the pattern tile repeat so that the grain isn't noticeably repeated.

     

    Back when I used to do a lot of retouching of drum scans in the early 2000's, I created a "Smart Noise" action, the last update that I made is here (feel free to fix my typo in the last action!):

     

    https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/r6jaovm3wz4u84pdidb9k/Smart-Noise-CS3.atn?rlkey=26oyqkhkz9jbo1do0xu6u1cdh&st=zirtzbw1&dl=0

     

     

    The noise is applied to a 50% gray fill layer and blended in overlay mode to act like a faux adjustment layer. This also adds the benefit of tapering off the noise in the extreme highlights and shadows.

     

    You can blur, sharpen or otherwise filter and manipulate the noise as required, adjust opacity, blend if sliders etc.

     

    There is a 2:1 scale option, which you could easily make larger.

     

    There are other filters/methods to add noise or grain (such as the Camera Raw Filter). You may need to combine multiple methods.

     

      M
      Merlin3Author
      Inspiring
      October 1, 2024

      Hi Stephen,

      Most grateful to you.

      Will the downloaded SmartNoise CS3.atn file work in CS6 ?

      I will try it out on my image, as you can see there is a uniform area of colour near him to sample. I can understand that if the recipient image is very mixed content than extracting the noise pattern and size could be tricky.

      I would love to see tutorials on editing one image into another, they must solve the noise matching else the images will stick out like a sore thumb. Adobes 'add noise' is woefully short of whats needed. There should at the very least be a noise size slider and noise softener, as blurring the image isnt good. To know a bit more about how to add noise and use layers and other blending modes is something I need to do. I see one tut here but its having to use the sand grain size noise and its too simple and precise for whats needed if pebbles are more the size. variances in colour would also nbe useful, amazed Adobe have overlooked this filter all these years.

      Feel free to try yours out on my sample I posted.

       

      Merlin

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