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:
“A true politeness does not result from any hasty and artificial polishing, it is true, but grows naturally in characters of the right grain and quality, through a long fronting of men and events, and rubbing on good and bad fortune.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The cities of the world are concentric, isomorphic, synchronic. Only one exists and you are always in the same one. It’s the effect of their permanent revolution, their intense circulation, their instantaneous magnetism.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“Film as dream, film as music. No art passes our conscience in the way film does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls.”
—Ingmar Bergman (b. 1918)