Easily Make a Heavy Grain Effect in Photoshop

As we all know, trends come and go. But some aesthetic choices have a way of leaving a mark on the creative field like the heavy grain effect. This technique, used by many artists and characterized by its textured and nostalgic appearance, has become a powerful tool for adding depth and personality to many different designs. Of course, there are many different ways to make tis effect in Photoshop, but today I would like to show you a method that for sure you will find easy to make and will give you great results with the ability to change the colors (and the intensity) even after we finish the effect.

Step 1

Open your image in Photoshop.

Step 2

Go to Layer > New > Layer. Name this layer as "Grain" and click ok.

Step 3

Go to Edit > Fill. Apply the following settings and click OK.

Step 4

Go to Filter > Pixelate > Pointilize. Set the Cell Size between 3 and 5 and click OK.

Step 5

In the Layers Panel, set the blend mode of the Grain layer to Overlay.

Step 6

Press "D" on your keyboard (to reset the Foreground and Background colors) and go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map.

Step 7

In the Gradient Map Properties panel, click on the gradient thumbnail to open the Gradient Editor.

Step 8

In the Gradient Editor window, click on the first color stop (which in this case is the black one) and set the Location to 40%.

Step 9

Next, click on the second color stop (the white one in this case) set the location to 75% and click OK in the Gradient Editor window.

Step 10

Select the Background layer and go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves.

Step 11

In the Curves Properties panel click anywhere inside the curve graphic to add a new control point.

Step 12

Lastly, set the Input value to 145 and the Output value to 120.

A final tip:

With the effect completed, you can now change the Gradient Map colors and make the effect lighter or stronger simply moving the control point on the curves panel to any other location you want like in the following examples.