Top 5 Methods to Reduce Noise in Photos

Mar 16
08:09

2017

Ethan James

Ethan James

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Noise in your images generate due to various reasons like high ISO settings, low light conditions, long exposure, poor camera quality etc. Let’s discuss few methods to reduce noise in your images.

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Digital noise in your image makes it look grainy and incomplete. This noise generates in your image due to various reasons like high ISO settings,Top 5 Methods to Reduce Noise in Photos Articles long exposures, low light conditions, poor camera quality etc. You can follow certain steps to remove this noise from your image to make it look perfect. In this article, we can discuss few methods to reduce noise in your photos.

Set ISO Settings Right: ISO settings is generally termed as the level of sensitivity of your camera device to available light. Lower ISO number means lower sensitivity to available light and a higher number means more sensitivity. Higher ISO numbers may cause more grain/noise in the image.  Thus, putting ISO settings right can keep the noise level down in your image. Different camera devices react differently to varied ISO numbers though keeping ISO numbers low is advisable to reduce the noise level in your photos. When you put higher ISO numbers it creates a group of pixels together to capture more light, which creates more noise.

To avert this situation, you can prefer opening aperture to its widest possible settings or when you are shooting in low light conditions you can consider using a tripod or a flash. “Auto ISO” feature in camera settings is another useful function to take perfect and noise free pictures. It will set the ISO numbers right, as per light condition, shutter speed etc.

Shoot in RAW format: RAW format is considered to be the best way possible to get best out of your images. You don’t require to shoot at RAW format all the time but when you find low light conditions or find it little too dark to photography then consider switching to this format. The reason behind switching to this format is that it gives you more flexibility to remove noise and increase exposure in post-production of your images compared to JPEG format. As JPEG images have some compression applied to them it already has some noise in it called JPEG artefacts.

Check Camera Exposure: This simple trick can help you reduce noise in images significantly. Keep camera exposure right to get noise free images. Most of the recent camera devices are equipped with advanced techniques to offer better digital sensors to handle shadow of images and highlights. With these latest camera devices, you can set exposure at the right level to take perfect pictures without worrying about shadows and other problems in the highlights. You can even overexpose slightly while taking pictures which makes shadows little brighter than normal. You can set the image highlights down in the post-production. Latest sensors in camera devices capture better details in image highlights avoiding overexposure which may affect the details in the photo.

Be careful with a long exposure: Long exposures can create some most dramatic images for you but when the exposure is too long, your camera sensor can begin to heat up and pixels will affect and render incorrect colors and exposure. If you are planning to do long exposures, then first test your gear and know its limit while taking long exposures. The key idea is to know the limit of the gear and shoots within those limits to get perfect images.

Use In-Camera Noise Reduction features: Many latest camera devices offer features like High ISO Noise Reduction or Long Exposure Noise Reduction etc. to keep a tab on the noise level in your photos. Turn this feature ON while you are shooting at high ISO numbers or doing a long exposure. Turning this feature ON, your camera device will analyze the image while it has been shot, to check for any pixels that are incorrectly rendered to fix them up. This process may take some time, usually as long as the exposure time. So, if you have time, you can do it even on long exposures to improve image quality.

Bonus Tip: You can use noise reduction softwaretools to reduce noise in your images and to make them look perfect. These tools help you reduce your manual efforts to de-noise your images.

Apart from these simple methods, you can consider setting shutter speed and aperture right to get some perfect photos. It will also help you reduce noise in your images. Though there is no defined method for every image still you can try multiple methods to make your image noise free. Reducing noise in your image can make it look perfect.