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Noiseography -- A new photographic technique

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My first Noiseograph -- A picture created from noise - by Tony Karp
My first Noiseograph -- A picture created from noise
Noiseography is a brand new photographic technique. It works by separating out the digital noise in an image and then working to create an image using just the noise. The steps used in creating a Noiseograph are shown below.

Noiseography is certainly an interesting technique. It makes use of something everyone else tries to get rid of. While everyone is complaining about the noise in digital images, here's a way to make use of it. Sort of like cutting up a pig and then finding a use for the oink.

But there may, in fact, be some practical uses for Noiseography. One such use would be a formal method for studying and quantifying the noise in digital photographs.

I'm working on a concept I call "urusai." It's the noise equivalent of bokeh. The main concept is that the quality of the noise in a digital image is more important than how much noise there is.

Some digital noise is streaky, some noise resembles large blotches of color. All are objectionable. But my DMC-FZ5 and my Sony DSC-F707 produced noise that looked like film grain. Not so objectionable.

I'm still working on names for the different types of noise. Gotta have names, you know.
Here's the original -- A sculpture in the museum -- Panasonic DMC-FZ5 - by Tony Karp
Here's the original -- A sculpture in the museum -- Panasonic DMC-FZ5
Here we are, jazzed up a little in LightZone 3 - by Tony Karp
Here we are, jazzed up a little in LightZone 3
Now I apply a noise reduction tool and set it to show the difference between the noise-removed version and the original. In other words, just the noise. - by Tony Karp
Now I apply a noise reduction tool and set it to show the difference between the noise-removed version and the original. In other words, just the noise.
Here's a pixel-level close-up of the image above. Since it's like a halftone -- mainly black and white dots -- there's no way to work on improving the brightness and contrast. - by Tony Karp
Here's a pixel-level close-up of the image above. Since it's like a halftone -- mainly black and white dots -- there's no way to work on improving the brightness and contrast.
The fix is to apply a blur to the image. This gives some grays to work with and the image can be jazzed up a little. The image at the top of the page is a cropped version of this image. - by Tony Karp
The fix is to apply a blur to the image. This gives some grays to work with and the image can be jazzed up a little. The image at the top of the page is a cropped version of this image.
Here's a pixel-level close-up of the final image that shows how adding the blur gave some grays to work with. - by Tony Karp
Here's a pixel-level close-up of the final image that shows how adding the blur gave some grays to work with.
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