A projection system includes: an illumination source configured to output illumination light; a phase light modulator (PLM) optically coupled to the illumination source, the PLM configured to: receive the illumination light; phase modulate the illumination light while displaying a phase hologram, to produce modulated light; and projection optics coupled to the PLM, the projection optics configured to receive the modulated light and to project an image responsive to the modulated light; wherein both a mean in intensity and a variance in intensity in bright regions of the projected image is greater than the mean intensity and the variance in intensity in dark regions of the projected image.

An example projection system includes a processing element to run an iterative algorithm to generate, based on a digital video image, a phase hologram; an illumination source to output coherent light; a phase light modulator (PLM) to receive the phase hologram and the coherent light, and modulate the coherent light to produce modulated light; and projection optics to receive the modulated light from the PLM and to project an image responsive to the modulated light and the phase hologram, in which the image has more noise in bright regions of the image than in dark regions of the image, and in which the bright regions are of higher intensity than the dark regions.