Photographic Syntax - Film Grain

This describes the fine grains of silver that make up a traditional photographic image. With a silver emulsion these grain particles are distributed randomly and the size of them is affected by the nature of the emulsion, the exposure and the development conditions.

When images are enlarged the reference to the grain of the film can become more obvious. With larger formats of film like 4"x 5" where the enlargement is smaller the grain is less obvious while with smaller formats like 35mm where the enlargement is much greater the grain is larger and more obvious.

These conditions are carried through to the print.