Film Grain and Film Scanner Noise in HDR Video

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Publisher: SMPTE — White Plains, NY, USA
Doc Type: Conference Paper
Content Type: Original Research
Volume: 2019, No. 10, pp. 1–28
Abstract: While physical film prints are not widely used for motion picture distribution due to the industry's successful transition to digital cinema distribution, negative film and interpositive (IP) film are still frequently used as a source for motion picture releases in High Dynamic Range (HDR) and Standard Dynamic Range (SDR) formats. Modern productions that use film as the acquisition format typically scan the film negative in a film scanner and then use modern digital production processes such as visual effects, editing and color grading like modern digital camera workflows. Remastering projects leverage the thousands of film negatives and IPs that are stored in Hollywood studios' vaults to create new versions of older titles. IPs were created in traditional photochemical film workflows and are often available for use in remastering projects. — Film scanning is a critical step in both modern film production and remastering workflows as it converts the analog medium of film to a digital format. The film scanning process itself can introduce scanner noise into the digital image which has different characteristics than the more familiar film grain noise. Film grain noise is inherent in the physical film medium itself and its visibility and characteristics vary based on the film format and the type of film used. Filmmakers often consider the characteristics of film grain as a visual aesthetic that can be leveraged creatively to enhance the storytelling. Traditional photochemical film workflows that did not use film scanners also were impacted by film grain noise. — Scanning different types of film elements (e.g. negatives and IPs) in different film scanners with different scan settings can lead to different results. The visibility of these differences change when the scan is used to create an SDR Home Master or SDR Cinema release versus an HDR Home Master due to the increased luminance and contrast often associated with the HDR format. This paper quantifies these differences and explains the visual impact of film grain versus scanner noise with an emphasis on HDR video. Additionally, this paper describes our recent experiments with test films and presents visual examples of scanner noise and film grain noise.
Publication Date: 2019-10-21
DOI: 10.5594/M001884
Link: https://doi.org/10.5594/M001884
Author(s): Michael D. SmithWavelet Consulting LLC, 321 N Pass Ave #145, Burbank, CA 91505
Michael ZinkWarner Bros. Entertainment Inc., 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California 91522
Keyword(s): Film, Film Grain, Scanner, Film Negative, Film Positive, IP, HDR, Noise, Visibility, Contrast Sensitive Function
Copyright: © 2019 Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, Inc.

Bibliographic Reference(s)

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https://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/customers/productions/default.htm EXTERNAL
Peter D. Burns and Don Williams, “Identification of Image Noise Sources in Digital Scanner Evaluation”, Proc. SPIE-IS&T Electronic Imaging Symposium, SPIE vol. 5294, pg. 114-123, EXTERNAL
Helja Kukkonen, Jyrki Rovamo, Kaisa Tiippana, Risto Nasanen, “Michaelson Contrast, RMS Contrast and Energy of Various Spatial Stimuli at Threshold”, Vision Research, Vol. 33 No. 10 pp 1431-1346, 1993. EXTERNAL
Bernard Moulden, Fred Kingdom, Linda F. Gatley, “The standard deviation of luminance as a metric for contrast in random-dot images”, Perception, 1990, volume 19, pages 79-101. EXTERNAL
Tamara Seybold, Betina L. Koelln, Aynur Pasha, Harald Brendel, "Visibility of spatiotemporal noise in digital video", 2016 Color and Imaging Conference, pp. 20-26, Nov. 2016 EXTERNAL

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Michael D. Smith and Michael Zink; Film Grain and Film Scanner Noise in HDR Video, SMPTE Meetings and Conferences ( October 2019); SMPTE, 2019. Available at https://doi.org/10.5594/M001884

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Michael D. Smith and Michael Zink; Film Grain and Film Scanner Noise in HDR Video, SMPTE Meetings and Conferences ( October 2019); SMPTE, 2019. Available at https://doi.org/10.5594/M001884

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Michael D. Smith and Michael Zink; Film Grain and Film Scanner Noise in HDR Video, SMPTE Meetings and Conferences ( October 2019); SMPTE, 2019. Available at https://doi.org/10.5594/M001884

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<span class="citation">Michael D. Smith and Michael Zink; <cite>Film Grain and Film Scanner Noise in HDR Video</cite>, SMPTE Meetings and Conferences ( October 2019); SMPTE, 2019. Available at <a href="https://doi.org/10.5594/M001884" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://doi.org/10.5594/M001884</a></span>

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Michael D. Smith and Michael Zink; Film Grain and Film Scanner Noise in HDR Video, SMPTE Meetings and Conferences ( October 2019); SMPTE, 2019
doi: 10.5594/M001884
url: https://doi.org/10.5594/M001884

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Michael D. Smith and Michael Zink; <cite id="bib-10-5594-m001884">Film Grain and Film Scanner Noise in HDR Video</cite>, SMPTE Meetings and Conferences ( October 2019); SMPTE, 2019
<span class="doi">10.5594/M001884</span>
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