This is a long shot!

Is there a way to extract the white bits from the example below and then using them as a transparent layer to add the same noise pattern to solid images.

I have experimented with photoshops inbuilt filters but there are no parameters within them to adjust to get exactly what I want.

Is there a commercial plugin that will do this?

The example image is not particularly great as I had to take a small part of an image and tile it to make it of a size I can use in this post.

Any suggestions much appreciated.

Example Imageimage


Simply set it on a layer above other layers in the layer stack and then change the Blend Mode to Screen.

This will cause only the white to be shown.

If necessary, you can also perform a Levels or Curves adjustment to the layer to increase the contrast.


Put your BW noise image into a layer mask of an adjustment layer or an image layer.

Here it makes the solid blue color layer partially visible:

enter image description here

And here it allows the Hue&Saturation layer to cause hue shift to red:

enter image description here

The idea is used here How is this type of grain/noise effect made? to allow noise to make a photo grainy so that the graininess is darkness:

You can get layer mask onto the screen for pasting and other easy to see edits by clicking the layer mask icon in the layers panel and holding Alt at the same time.

Often it's useful to apply Image > Adjustments > Curves to the layer mask to make it more effecive. With layer opacity you can only make the layer less apparent.

enter image description here

With blending modes you can get weird effects:

enter image description here

Not asked: The weirdness has no limits if you filter or edit otherwise the layer mask. You can keep the image visible all the time to see what you got, only click the layer mask icon without Alt to get the mask under editing.

enter image description here

Layer masks are BW images, but having RGB mode doesn't harm at all, it works anyway. Photoshop desaturates the mask.

Your Answer

