Film grain (video)

Film grain deliberately adds a fine grain structure to your video for an analog, cinematic feel. It takes off the smooth, digital look and gives your image texture and character. It's a much-used finishing touch on cinematic grades.

In DaVinci Resolve there's a Film Grain effect you put on a node, with controls for size and strength. Lay your grain at the end of your grade, over your full look, so it sits evenly everywhere. It also hides slight banding in flat areas like skies. Tip: keep the grain subtle and match the size to your resolution, because coarse grain on 4K quickly looks too pronounced.

Related terms

Film emulation Creative grade (look) Noise reduction (video) Creative LUT (look) Grain

Prefer a look in one click?

The presets on this site set these adjustments up for you as a starting point, which you then fine-tune to taste.

Film Stocks

← Back to the thesaurus