Joe's Filters: Joe's Noise - Levels

The Joe's Noise - Levels plugin is a part of Joe's Filters, shareware utility and image processing effects for Final Cut Pro.

What it does

Joe's Noise - Levels can be used to add grain and color correct an image in one step. The effect applies a levels adjustment to random noise pixels in the image, creating grain through subtle modification of existing pixel colors. Originally this was going to be a just Gamma noise filter, but I couldn't see any reason not to add the rest of the image correction controls from Joe's Levels.

Two key components of making video look more like film are grain and contrast. Joe's Noise - Levels can save a lot of time when creating a film look by combining these effects in one filter.

This filter uses the same efficient noise engine as the other Joe's Noise filters for faster rendering and smoother results.

Example Images

When applying high-contrast or other significant corrections, softening the noise or reducing the opacity can help the resulting image to appear more natural.

Three Kinds of Noise

There are three different noise filters included with Joe's Filters bringing a wide range of noise filtering and adjusting options to Final Cut Pro. Each plugin's uses noise differently to produce unique results. Here are a few basic examples of the differences:

Original Image

Joe's Noise Color

Joe's Noise Levels

Joe's Noise Saturation

The Controls

• Input Black, Gamma, Input White, Output Black, Output White, Target

  Basic Levels controls, see Joe's Levels for explanations of these controls.

• Scale Noise (100 - 1000%)

Increases the size of the noise particles.

• Soft Noise (0 - 10)

  Blurs the noise before compositing it back into the image. A slight blur can prevent noise particles from shimmering on a video monitor.

• Fixed Noise

  Determines whether the noise changes on every frame or stays fixed for the duration of the effect.

• Opacity

  Sets the intensity of the adjusted noise pixels.