1. An iterative method of processing a pixellated image comprising image pixels to retrieve a phase distribution representative of the image in the Fourier domain, the method comprising: padding the image pixels with non-image pixels to increase the total number of pixels in the pixellated image, wherein the values of the non-image pixels comprises an initial random noise field; associating each pixel of the pixellated image with a phase value to form a first data set having plural elements, each element of the first data set having amplitude information and phase information; and (n+1) iterations of the following steps, where n is an integer: performing a Fourier transform of the first data set to produce a second data set having plural elements, each element of the second data set having amplitude and phase information; quantizing the phase information from the second data set; forming a third data set having plural elements, each element of the third data set having amplitude and phase information, the phase information being derived from the second data set and; inverse Fourier transforming the third data set to produce a fourth data set having plural elements, each element of the fourth data set having amplitude and phase information; overwriting the amplitude and/or phase information of the fourth data set to produce a fifth data set having plural elements, each element of the fifth data set having amplitude and phase information; wherein overwriting comprises processing the nonimage pixels differently to the image pixels and attenuating the amplitude information of each non-image pixel of the fifth data set by an attenuation factor and/or processing the amplitude information of the each image pixel utilizing a gain factor; wherein the attenuation factor and/or gain factor are variable and dependent on the iteration number of the iterative method; and using the modified fifth data set as the first data set of the next iteration; and reconstructing the phase distribution to form a holographic reconstruction of the image.