ABSTRACT

Film grains are the visible ‘chunks’ of silver amplified by the process of developing the film from the tiny ‘sensitivity specks’ of silver in the latent undeveloped image in the camera. Big silver-halide crystals are more sensitive to light but produce bigger grains when developed. ‘Fast’ films with a high ISO rating are unavoidably grainy. Developers play an important role in determining the final size of the grain in the negative. Grain is a unique property of photographic film. The shape and distribution of the grains of silver in the film are random. Grain immediately reminds the viewer that this is a contrived photographic image. It has become the hallmark of hard realism in photography, partly because of the association of grainy, high-speed film and edgy available light photography. Grain became the ‘look’ of much social documentary photography and this is now often referenced by fashion and fine-art photographers.