Hologram recording method and hologram recording apparatus

A hologram recording apparatus comprising:

• a lens for Fourier transformation for forming a Fourier transformed image on a hologram recording medium;
• a spatial light modulator device disposed at a front focal plane of the lens for spatially modulating irradiated light according to input data;
• a splitting and irradiation mechanism for splitting a laser beam irradiated by a laser beam irradiation mechanism into light for a signal beam and light for a reference beam, and irradiating the light for a signal beam to the spatial light modulator device and irradiating the light for a reference beam as a reference beam to the hologram recording medium;
• and
• an input mechanism for inputting data formed by superimposing pattern data, the pattern data representing a pattern in which a large number of plural kinds of pixels having different tone values are arranged in a two-dimensional manner, on image data with respective pixels represented by tone values corresponding to density, the data being input to the spatial light modulator device.