kornreduktion

Kornreduktion, also known as grain reduction or demosaicing, is a process used in digital photography and imaging to reduce visual artifacts that appear when a sensor captures color information. Digital camera sensors typically use a color filter array (CFA), such as the Bayer filter, where each pixel is filtered to capture only red, green, or blue light. Demosaicing algorithms then interpolate the missing color information for each pixel based on its neighbors.

However, this interpolation process can introduce undesirable artifacts, often referred to as "grain" or "chrominance noise," especially in areas of fine detail or smooth gradients. Kornreduktion algorithms are designed to mitigate these issues. They work by analyzing the captured image data and applying various techniques to smooth out these noise patterns without sacrificing significant image detail.

Common methods include spatial filtering, edge-aware smoothing, and intelligent pattern recognition to distinguish between actual image detail and noise. Different kornreduktion algorithms have varying strengths and weaknesses, impacting factors like sharpness, color accuracy, and the perceived smoothness of the final image. The effectiveness of kornreduktion can depend on the specific CFA pattern, the quality of the sensor, and the complexity of the scene being captured. Many image editing software packages and camera firmware incorporate kornreduktion features to improve the visual quality of digital photographs.