Comment by trenchpilgrim

7 months ago

> camera manufacturers and film crews both do their best to produce a noise-free image

This is not correct, camera manufacturers and filmakers engineer _aesthetically pleasing_ noise (randomized grains appear smoother to the human eye than clean uniform pixels). The rest is still as silly as it sounds.

8 comments

trenchpilgrim

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franga2000  7 months ago

Considering how much many camera brands boast their super low noise sensors, I'd still say a very common goal is to have as little noise as possible and then let the director/dop/colorist add grain to their liking. Even something like ARRI's in-camera switchable grain profiles requires a low-noise sensor to begin with.

But yes, there are definitely also many DPs that like their grain baked-in and camera companies that design cameras for that kind of use.

  • strogonoff  7 months ago

    In any case, luma noise is not at all a massive issue, and it is a mistake to say that crews do their best to produce a noise-free image. They do their best to produce an image that they want to see, and some amount of luma noise is not a deal-breaker. There are routinely higher priorities that will take over using the lowest ISO possible. They can also be financial considerations, if you don’t have enough lights.

    It is only an issue in content delivery.

benjiro  7 months ago

> randomized grains appear smoother to the human eye than clean uniform pixels

Does this explain why i dislike 4K content on a 4K TV? Where some series and movies look too realistic, what in turn gives me a amateur film feeling (like somebody made a movie with a smartphone).