How to Remove the Grain in a Black & White Photo in GIMP

You can digitally remove the grain in black and white photos using the editor GIMP.

GIMP is a free graphic design program you can use to create and edit digital images. Among the many effects GIMP can carry out is grain removal, which will give you a sharper, clearer picture. You can remove the grain and noise from a black and white photo, but you have to be especially careful when working with that type of image. The subtleties within a desaturated photo can be hard to preserve when using filters designed for generic files.

Instructions

1. Launch GIMP and open your black and white photo by clicking on "File" and "Open." Click on the image name and press "Open."

2. Select "Filters," clicking on "Enhance" and then "Despeckle." A pop-up box will appear showing you a preview of what your image will look like when the filter will be implemented.

3. Adjust the settings as you see fit. Check the "Adaptive" box in order to smooth your results and the "Recursive" box to increase the tool's strength. Using the respective scrollbars, set the "Radius," "Black level" and "White level." When making these adjustments for a black and white photo, you should pay particular attention to the preview box to view how your limited color scheme is being affected; minute changes may be overly powerful.

4. Click "OK" and the effect will take place. If you do not like the change, you can select "Edit" and "Undo Despeckle." You can re-try the Despeckle effect with different settings, or you can opt to use a different grain removal technique entirely.

5. Select "Filters," "Blur" and "Selective Gaussian Blur" to try to remove any additional unwanted grain or noise. Set the "Blur radius" and click "OK." While editing a black and white photo, preserving the color variation becomes increasingly important; keep your radius a conservative size to avoid extreme blur intensities.

6. Save your edited photo by clicking on "File" and "Save As." Insert your desired name and extensions, clicking "Save" when finished.

Tips & Warnings

• If you have one area of your photo in particular that you want to remove grain, before implementing the Despeckle effect, click on the "Rectangular Select Tool" in the main toolbox. Double-click and drag your cursor to highlight the area you want to isolate. Proceed with the effect, which will only affect the portion of your image highlighted.

• Remember to save your edited photo using a unique filename if you do not want to replace the original.

References

• GIMP Docs: Despeckle
• GIMP: Noise Removal with Selective Gaussian Blur

Resources

• GIMP
• GIMP: Reducing CCD Noise