The Most Effective Way to Reduce Noise in Your Photos Using Photoshop

Photography Tips

Advancing technology has improved image quality, and while digital noise isn’t as much of a problem as it once was, it is still an issue that needs attention in some photographs. Watch as Bryan O’Neil Hughes walks us through the process he uses to reduce noise using Photoshop:

Hughes starts his noise reduction workflow in the Camera RAW plug-in. In Photoshop CC click Filter > CameraRAW. This will open the module where you can navigate to the adjustment sliders and make any corrections needed to exposure. O’Neil points out that, when working with luminance and sharpening, it’s best to zoom in to about 200 percent so you can be sure to get a close up look at how the image is being affected.

There are several ways to reduce noise in Photoshop.

Once you’ve settled on the basic image adjustments, you can open the Details Panel in Camera RAW. This will present you with options to adjust Sharpening and Luminance. Use the Color Noise slider to clean up the shadows and the Luminance Detail slider to fuzz out any leftover noise. Just be careful or your image will start to look like a painting.

You can also hide some of the noise by pulling down the Blacks slider in the Basic panel.

Hughes warns that the intuitive option of using Filter > Noise > Reduce Noise to reduce digital noise is no longer the best option. Use his other suggested techniques for best results.