Film Grain - Grain Effect With Film and Digital

Grain Effect With Film and Digital

The images below show an example of extreme film grain:

  • Rallycross car pictured on an Agfa 1000 RS slide

  • Detail of the same photo

Digital photography does not exhibit film grain, since there is no film for any grain to exist within. In digital cameras, the closest physical equivalents of film grains are the individual elements of the image sensor (e.g. CCD cell); just as small-grain film has better resolution than large-grain film, so will an image sensor with more elements result in an image with better resolution. As film grains are randomly distributed and have size variation, while image sensor cells are of same size and are arranged in a grid, direct comparison of film and digital resolutions is not straightforward.

In general, as the pixels from a digital image sensor are set in straight lines, they irritate the eye of the viewer more than the randomly arranged film grains. Most people will reject an enlargement that show pixels, whereas a grained film enlagement with lower resolution will be acceptable, and perceived as 'sharper'.

The effect of film grain can be simulated in some digital photo manipulation programs, such as Photoshop, adding grain to a digital image after it is taken.

In digital photography, image noise sometimes appears as a "grain-like" effect.

Read more about this topic:  Film Grain

Famous quotes containing the words grain, effect and/or film:

    As polishing expresses the vein in marble, and grain in wood, so music brings out what of heroic lurks anywhere. The hero is the sole patron of music.
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    Because just as arms have no force outside if there is no counsel within a house, study is vain and counsel useless that is not put to virtuous effect when the time calls.
    François Rabelais (1494–1553)

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    Andrew Gordon, U.S. educator, critic. “The Inescapable Family in American Science Fiction and Fantasy Films,” Journal of Popular Film and Television (Summer 1992)