Make a digital photo look like film: grain, dust and light

Lift the blacks, add a light leak, then dust, then grain last. Three overlays at low opacity look like a real negative scan.

A film look is not one effect. It is three small things together: grain, a little dust and some light. Each one alone looks like a filter. Together, at low strength, they look like a scan of a real negative.

What you need

• A grain plate, for example ISO 400 medium grain or colour film grain, medium for colour photos.
• A dust plate, for example slide scan dust.
• Optional: a light leak such as golden hour haze.

Step by step

1. Colour first. Lift the blacks a little with a Curves layer (drag the bottom left point up) and lower the saturation by 10–20%. Film rarely has pure black or very loud colour.
2. Light leak. Place the leak plate on top, set it to Screen, move it to an edge and lower the opacity to 40–70%.
3. Dust. Place the dust plate, set it to Screen, opacity 50–80%. Rotate or flip it if you use it on several photos, so the same specks do not repeat.
4. Grain last. Place the grain plate on top of everything, set it to Overlay or Soft Light, opacity 30–60%.
5. Check at 100%. Zoom in. The grain should be clear at 100% and almost invisible when the whole photo fits the screen.

Why this order

Grain goes last because on film it is part of every layer of the picture, including the dust and the light. If you put grain under the dust, the specks look pasted on.

Match the grain to the photo