Adding noise to white backgrounds, who does this?

[Hendrik]

I while ago I was at a tradeshow and a well-known retoucher gave a demonstration. One tip he had was to add low opacity monochromatic noise to the pure white backgrounds to give the printer something to print.

So my question: who adds noise to the white backgrounds?

Opinions appreciated.

[Damo77]

That's strange, I understood that was "old" thinking, from the days of early postscript printers. I'd be interested to hear other people's opinions.

I certainly add a small amount of noise to long gradients (eg false skies), just to be safe from banding.

[JavierT]

Originally Posted by Damo77

That's strange, I understood that was "old" thinking, from the days of early postscript printers. I'd be interested to hear other people's opinions.

I certainly add a small amount of noise to long gradients (eg false skies), just to be safe from banding.

Me too, and good results.

[SilvaFox]

Same here. I use noise to help banding and to hide my "smooth stuff" in otherwise grainy images. My "old" thinking reminded me of gravure printing, where anything less than 4% would not print, but there would still be better ways of adding tone to blown out areas.

As far as I know, scum dots have never been a desirable quality. And, I don't know any pressmen that have trouble printing white.

Cheers

[Hendrik]

He said he added this noise to let the printer print something, so it suggests there is a benefit.

btw, the retoucher is Adrien Hendrickx (from Belgium), so someone who knows what he's talking about.

[Hendrik]

No one else?

[Damo77]

Originally Posted by Hendrik

He said he added this noise to let the printer print something, so it suggests there is a benefit.

btw, the retoucher is Adrien Hendrickx (from Belgium), so someone who knows what he's talking about.

I'd never heard of him, and I'm still not convinced. Sounds pointless to me.

[pixelzombie]

was it in the original photo as pure white?

[kyo]

I've heard this from a lot of retouchers actually.. though personally I've never noticed a big difference. I think a lot of it may have to do with the particular paper/medium you're printing to and the printer you're using.

Kyle

[Damo77]

No, I don't think so. If some minimum dot is required by the printer, it should be built into the ICC printing profile, not applied during retouching.