Project 41: grain

Again this is a project designed with black and white film in mind.  I again decided to experiment digitally.

Although not really a pure landscape as such I used this photograph of an alley that I took  in Perugia last spring.  I chose this image as I felt that it suited a grainy feel.  After converting to Black and White in Lightroom I added grain by using the grain sliders.  I have deliberately not been very subtle in the hope that the grain stands out when viewed in Blogger.

I also felt that the image might benefit by being sepia toned.  I think this may have brought out the grain somewhat.

What Have I Learned?
Generally I try to avoid noise/grain in my images as much as possible and occasionally use Neat Image software to reduce the noise.  I will particularly try to avoid noise in my images for Assignment 5 as part of Ansel Adams style was to produce sharp, grain-free images printed on smooth paper.  However, noise can be introduced into digital images by using high ISOs or in software packages.