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Digital GEM: Against The Grain Film
Reducing the grain in photographic film has been a problem since the inception of cinema as we know it.
What film grain you ask? To be technical, film grain is caused by the silver halide crystals in photographic emulsions sensitive to light. The faster the film, the larger the grain size. The larger the grain size more evident the grain of the film becomes. larger grains or crystals of silver halide, give the film a greater sensitivity to light. This is why faster films have more grain.
Digital GEM is a technology that was developed by a company called Applied Science Fiction. The GEM acronym actually means equal grain and administration. What is DIGITAL GEM analyzing a pattern of film grain, extracts all data related to image quality, color and sharpness, and removes the grain from the scanned image. This results in dramatically improved images. This is essentially the equivalent of reducing noise in images digital.
So who should use this technology? My opinion is that this technology should always be used when any type of image film to be scanned into a digital format. When applying this technology can improve the overall quality of an image by reducing or in some cases, elimination grain completely unwanted. Using this technology along with other technologies and techniques for correction of your photos picture may have the surprise factor you've always dreamed of.
Even in the world of digital photography these days, most photographers are using some form of technology noise reduction for digital images are clean. As part of my regular workflow I use Noise Ninja is an excellent product that can be used as a plug-in Photoshop. It can run on automatic, which is ideal for running batch files or manual mode.
As part of my regular workflow to scan personal images I always use my ICE and Digital GEM Digital with a setting of 3 or 4 out of 5. These values give the best results seem to reduce film grain images.
Unlike Digital ICE, Digital GEM seems to work very well in Black and White film and Kodachrome film. Digital ICE can not be used in the movie Black and White, unless it is developed in color, and has a lower impact on Kodachrome film.
Digital GEM is considered part ICE4 Digital group of technologies. Also included in this group include Digital ICE, which is used to remove surface defects, Digital ROC, which is used to restore and correct the color and Digital SHO, which is used to optimize the exposure and contrast. There are several scanners on the market today that use this technology today. These include the Nikon Coolscan 5000 and 9000 series film scanners that we use as well as the Epson 4990 flatbed scanner that we use for photographs large format scanning and positive and negative.
About the Author
Stephen Cornfield is a photographer who has several years experience photographing weddings, sporting and informal events. His company, Photo Field Imaging, www.photofieldimaging.com, also provides photo editing, restoration and scanning services for all types of photographs, film and slides.
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