PHOTOGRAPHIC EMULSION LAYER AS A 3-DIMENSIONAL RECORDING MEDIUM

In order to understand how a photographic material responds to radiation, its depth must be taken into account. For analysis the material is imagined to be built up of “elementary layers.” The three characteristics: modulation transfer function, density, and granularity, completely characterize the material and the resulting image. For parallel light both in exposure and density readout these characteristics are additive from those of the elementary layers. Methods for realizing and measuring the properties of elementary layers in any given material are described. The modulation transfer function is found to be considerably degraded for the lower elementary layers, which also make a relatively large contribution to the lower spatial frequencies of the noise power spectrum. © 1969 Optical Society of America.