Artgrain

The creative use of 'grain' is one of the oldest tricks in photography, and is just as appealing in the digital age. Grain doesn't work well on all subjects, but on the right image it can produce a very artistic look indeed. I would guess that most filter-writers produce a grain-filter at some time; well, I'd hate to be accused of too much originality, so this is my version...

	This image was taken about five years ago, and shows my elder son Lee by our local river (the Yeo, Somerset, England).
	The filter has three settings. 'Soft grain' is based on the natural image colour, and is only really visible in the darker areas. 'Hard grain' is generated with random colour. You can use the two types in any mix according to taste. The third slider allows the saturation to be altered to take the image from monochrome to extra-lurid.
	And this is the result for the settings shown.