GrainLab Film Grain Editor

Shown for US

• Free to download
• In-app purchases

Last verified 31 Jul 2026

Shown for US

4.9 213 ratings · App Store

1. 5/5Best In Class!

   If you want *realistic* film grain, your search has ended! I’m a professional sports photographer (digital, of course), but I like to go back to my roots and shoot analog when time permits…which is becoming increasingly rare. So to get my film photography “fix,” I have more apps than I care to admit. I find that “RNI Films” does a great job of simulating different emulsions (especially Portra and Tri-X), but I’ve never found an app that did a convincing job with film grain…until now! I *love* the fact that it has highly accurate presets for different emulsions, but what makes it even better is the endless tweakability to take that starting point and customize it to your heart’s content. Kudos to the developer! I consider GrainLab a “must have” for film buffs.

   CarlosBeltran · 31 Jul 2026

2. 5/5Suggestion

   This app has great potential to help people with black dogs, which are notoriously tough to capture without decent natural lighting. Even after trying to edit photos with black dogs with the stock iPhone editing tools or other 3rd party apps, they end up looking washed out, grainy, and/or unnatural. I have a black Labrador Retriever with dark brown to almost black looking eyes (most have light brown eyes that contrast their face a little) who has been my medically task trained service dog since 2017. I’m not a professional photographer by any means, but I’ve been an amateur photographer since film was still a thing and was early to the mobile photography scene having one of the first phones in the US to have a digital camera. Even with that experience, and having my boy for the last 8.5 years (and with now a little grey on his muzzle chin now being 10.5), it is still a matter of getting just the right conditions to capture beautiful images — and it’s not always possible to grab him with just the right lighting since he goes everywhere with me at all times of the day/night, both indoors and outdoors. I am hoping this app will turn out to be the solution to a very widespread issue. I’m not the only black dog owner with this issue. Go ask any owner of a black dog who likes to capture/edit their photos, and they’ll tell you the same thing. That said, I’d love to see a special dedicated guide within this app (or available on your website with a link in your app) for people with black dogs to learn how to effectively use the editing tools. I have to experiment a bit more with this app on my own, but some general guidance about how to edit these photos in a variety of lighting conditions and situations (ie: indoor/outdoor, portraits, action shots, pictures of the dog with other people, etc.) would be immensely appreciated and useful for someone like me, let alone people with even less photography experience than me. People love their dogs — if you can solve a problem and advertise it in forums for dog photography and dogs or with targeted ads, it might help generate more interest in this app. Hope this idea/feedback helps! I will continue to experiment with this app. (P.S. Thanks so much for the AppAdvice offer too!)

   MashaT22 · 31 Jul 2026

3. 5/5Finally real control over film grain

   I’ve been using this app to make photos that I think look too clean some realistic film grain, but find it really essential for adding realism to AI generated pictures! I tried many photo editors, looking for good film grain controls, but this one appears to be the only one that really takes that serious! I do hope the maker of the app will add a feature to save your adjustments as presets! That would complete it for me!

   AnalogJohn · 31 Jul 2026

4. 5/5Great app, love the grain options!

   I was honestly not expecting much as I use a lot of different film emulations and editing tools. However, the variety of grain adjustments and how detailed I can make the grain look is awesome. The app really surprised me and am happy to own it. I edit photos initially in my normal photo editor then take the selects into GrainLab to add grain. There’s quite a bit of film emulations to choose from as well as different ways to apply the layers. It took me some time to dial in a recipe that I liked but well worth the time spent to do so. Hope this review was helpful!

   theRuphio · 31 Jul 2026

5. 5/5Subscribed

   Love the app but now its saying I have to pay monthly when I was subscribed already. How can this get resolved?

   Shots By Scott · 31 Jul 2026

Privacy

• Data Linked to You — Analytics — Purchases — Purchase History Developer declared
• Data Linked to You — Analytics — Usage Data — Other Usage Data Developer declared
• Data Linked to You — App Functionality — Purchases — Purchase History Developer declared
• Data Linked to You — Developer’s Advertising or Marketing — Usage Data — Other Usage Data Developer declared
• Data Linked to You — Purchases Developer declared
• Data Linked to You — Usage Data Developer declared

Accessibility

No accessibility labels collected yet.