Noise Reduction in Photos

Novelangel Level 1

November 27, 2018, 6:14 pm

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Noise Reduction in Photos

That blasted visual noise! Even the best of my photos seem to be burdened by the stuff. Pixels, dots, streaks, flashes, you name it, it all seems to find its way into my pictures. I could be using the cheapest camera or the highest end ... it doesn't seem to matter. What am I doing wrong? How do you go about reducing or eliminating visual noise? Is it even possible to completely remove the stuff? I have a decent enough photographic eye, but can't seem to create that perfectly "soundless" photo.

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Janie1994

Janie1994

I would look at the editing software you're using to help minimize noise. Also pay attention to where the lighting is coming from in your photos. What's the location of the sun, where are the lights in the photos, are there any streaks on the lenses. Each of those could impact your photos and lead to increased noise.

6 years ago

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theresajane

theresajane

I agree with you. There are a lot of factors that can affect the quality of the camera, try looking into each one of it and think of the ways to deal with it.

6 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Kakashi2020

I do agree that the most common reasons are improper lighting, unstable shots and interference. You just have to plan well in taking photos to minimize notice.

6 years ago

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Youngshark

Youngshark

Also try as much as possible to eliminate any aspects of the background that may require excess clean up.

6 years ago

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anyone01

anyone01

It's far better to lessen noise within the original exposure, when there is sufficient light, through lowering the ISO setting. This could bring about longer exposure times, so that you may discover that the use of a tripod helps in low light situations.

6 years ago

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DenisP

DenisP

I don’t know what camera you’re using, but the biggest issue with regards to noise is going to be lighting.

If you’re working with automatic settings, your digital camera is going to automatically up the ISO level in order to compensate for low-light conditions. The higher the ISO settings, the more digital noise you’re going to see. It’s why I only shoot in manual mode and try to limit my ISO setting to a maximum of 800. Noise is barely noticeable up to 800 ISO, but once you go 1600 and above, it’s going to be very noticeable.

In order to maintain a low ISO in low-light conditions, you’re going to have to set the aperture setting as low as possible (5.6 or lower if you have a better lens) and lower the shutter speed in order to compensate for the low ISO. I wouldn’t bother digitally removing noise because, in my opinion, it makes the picture look even worse.

6 years ago

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Novelangel

Novelangel

Very interesting. I think you are correct in this assessment about the photo's settings needing to be properly set to eliminate the noise. I have a Nikon Coolpix 8500, which I'm just learning how to use as it has some settings I'm completely unfamiliar with. I will try to use better settings and a tripod whenever possible to see if I get any improvement.

6 years ago

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TheArticulate

TheArticulate

In order to help answer your question, I'll need to know more about what equipment you use. Are you using a cell phone or a DSLR camera? Either way, if you can keep an eye on your ISO, that plays a huge role in how grainy/noisy your photos turn out. Shooting on a lower ISO and slower shutterspeed might resolve your issue. If you're shooting in dark places, there might not be a lot that can be done because you'll be limited by the capabilities of your camera instead.

In Lightroom, you could always run luminance smoothing on the photo to get rid of some of the noise, but it'll blur your photo if you use it too much.

6 years ago

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edencaga

edencaga

Yes you are right. It's the ISO and shutter speed thing if you are using a DSLR. Sometimes you need a new equipment if you want to take a good shot. As for me, my camera lens is quite old already that badly needs a new lens as the capabilities of my camera is only limited and a lot of camera lenses are already upgraded. I also use lightroom when editing some pixelated pictures or when there are too much noise from the picture,

6 years ago

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theresajane

theresajane

This is one of my problems, probably because of my camera. It doesn't have high megapixels or I don't know, maybe the play of lighting in shoots is the key.

6 years ago

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ballyhara

ballyhara

Join the club girl. I'm more than sure it is because of my old camera, or maybe because my cellphone camera is way too wasted. Megapixels is more about definition on the image, so that's another extra point to take care about, but when it comes to visual noise, I would say equipment and environment light is the main cause.

6 years ago

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nrnlss

nrnlss

Me too, I have a cheap camera because that is the only camera I can afford.

6 years ago

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Youngshark

Youngshark

hahahaha tell me about it. I recently lost my phone and the one I am using currently has an inferior camera which captures some things as if it leaks inside the lens. It is better than nothing and I cannot possibly complain that much though.

6 years ago

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mark8625

mark8625

So do I.There are some photo editor nowadays that you can edit the noise in your photos. I tried that before and it was very helpful.

6 years ago

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Alymae

Alymae

Yes. There is some photo editor that helps. My friends recommend Snapseed. There are also some that recommend Perfectly clear. These apps are really helpful and easy to use. Nowadays, it is easier to fix pictures because of photo editors unlike before.

6 years ago

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Novelangel

Novelangel

I will have to look for these apps and try them out. I agree that digital photography has really opened up a brand new world of photo manipulation that just keeps getting better and better. If I can just rid myself of the stupid grit and grain on my photos I will be a happy camper.

6 years ago

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mark8625

mark8625

Yeah I used that app too. It is good and highly recommended. They have many interesting tools for quick editing.

6 years ago

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edencaga

edencaga

Yes me too. This is also my main problem sometimes. It gets pixelated if your ISO is too high or your picture is darker and if you try to adjust the brightness, you will be able to see clearly those pixels.

6 years ago

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knnon

knnon

Have you tried Photoshop in reducing the noise of your images? This might help with the reduction you want done. I think that no matter how good our cameras are there will always be noise somewhere on the shot. Photoshop might be the only way to completely rid of them.

6 years ago

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mark8625

mark8625

I tried it many times and it is very useful based on the way I used it. There are many photo editors nowadays that has noise reduction.

6 years ago

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knnon

knnon

I know my brother has used Photoshop in making his photos and the subjects look much better, especially if he's done a wedding photo shoot. Photoshop is a photo lifesaver, because there'd be times he took a nice photo but there'd be something wrong with it and with a quick edit at Photoshop it'll be perfect!

6 years ago

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Bravosi

Bravosi

Photoshop is a great tool, which can do a lot of things, but personally I believe it's extra hard work to do it there. It would be great if just from the start this problem wouldn't exist. In order to avoid that the user should just get a better phone camera, in my opinion. So there wouldn't be a necessity to "attend" some softwares.

6 years ago

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knnon

knnon

It is true that having to edit your images on Photoshop is tedious. But if you've already used your camera's noise reduction, shot at lower ISO, or even used a fast lens, or whatever other tricks sometimes there's just no avoiding it and you'll have to say hello to Photoshop to remove it from a great shot.

6 years ago

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edencaga

edencaga

Yes. I agree that Photoshop will really help you a lot in reducing some noise reduction. I have tried it many times when I do have problem in pixelated images.

6 years ago

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gutzman

gutzman

There are only two ways I know. The first one is to have proper lighting. They use a reflector below the subject which gives a balance of brightness in it. You should not also take photos against the light. The other one is by using photo editing applications like Adobe Photoshop. It would need a lot of hard work though it's worth it.

6 years ago

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theresajane

theresajane

I agree with you. If you have problems with the setting when you were taking your photos, then the last resort would be Adobe Photoshop.

6 years ago

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Wenkx03

Wenkx03

I agree with you. Adobe photoshop will be your last resort in this issue. I always try to look for proper lighting shot but tgere still something. I always end up using photoshop.

6 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Kakashi2020

The best way to minimize notice is by being prepared. You must also undergo basic photography lessons to learn how to take good clear photos.

6 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Kakashi2020

You're right, I don't like editing photos but if the need arises I can depend on Adobe products to help me straighten up the photos.

6 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Kakashi2020

Oftentimes I get notice from not keeping the camera still. When this happens. I would take another photo. Also improper lighting is another cause, it's best not to take photos without proper lightimg.

6 years ago

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burgosmichael24

burgosmichael24

I agree with you. Noise reduction in photos by having a proper lighting is one of the best way. Through that, you will need a minimal editing on your photo. Photoshop and other photo editing software have advanced features that you can do almost everything.

6 years ago

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Bravosi

Bravosi

Woah! I agree with you completely! Oddly enough, thanks to you I realized how blind I was as to why such issue affects me as well. In fact, I didn't know it DOES! Can you imagine that? I'm now searching on the store in order to download an app or two, that will perhaps fix this annoying issue, try doing that too. There must be a solution.

6 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Kakashi2020

There's a lot of apps, free sites and editing software that can help you edit your photos. But for me it's best to just learn how to shoot good photos so that it won't need too much editing.

6 years ago

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ajahcuizon

ajahcuizon

I also experience the same thing. I often get irritated by it because it ruins my whole picture. I mean, some people may not have noticed it,but I'm a bit sensitice when it comes to small mistakes. I don't think there's a way to fully eliminate such things, we can only lessen the errors.

6 years ago

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anyone01

anyone01

Controls the luminance noise threshold. This is ideal for noisy images. Better values maintain greater detail however can produce noisier outcomes. decrease values produce cleaner outcomes but also put off a few detail.

6 years ago

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emiaj55

emiaj55

If you are using a DSLR, I learned that shooting with the lowest ISO setting clears a lot of visual noise. It was a tip from a colleague of mine and it works for me. I just never figured why exactly.

6 years ago

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theresajane

theresajane

Really? I didn't know that. Tha's a great tip. I hope it works.

6 years ago

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emiaj55

emiaj55

I finally had to go and research why we should stick for the lowest ISO . Lol.

"What is ISO?In very basic terms, ISO is simply a camera setting that will brighten or darken a photo. As you increase your ISO number, your photos will grow progressively brighter. For that reason, ISO is a good tool to help you capture images in dark environments or be more flexible about your aperture and shutter speed settings.

However, raising your ISO has consequences. A photo taken at too high of an ISO will show a lot of grain, also known as noise, and might not be usable. So, brightening a photo via ISO is always a trade-off. You should only raise your ISO when you are unable to brighten the photo via shutter speed or aperture instead (for example, if using a longer shutter speed would cause your subject to be blurry)."

(This an excerpt to an article for a beginner's guide in photography by Nasim Mansurov.
you could view the whole article here : https://photographylife.com/what-is-iso-in-photography)

Now I realized that I should really learn the terminologies if I want to grow in photography.

6 years ago

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Steve5

Steve5

Me too. It helps to know simple fix solutions such as that. I guess a lot of us didn't know how to do it. I haven't really checked my camera's settings that much. I'll see how it goes.

6 years ago

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romyter013

romyter013

Adobe photoshop really the first choice that we can use if we need to edit our photo at anytime. Its like accident happened and once we made the photo its already their and we cannot return that anymore that mistakes shot. though good thing we can use plenty of apps to edit and fix our photos to get the exact light, color or right shadow that we want to.

6 years ago

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amelia88

amelia88

This mainly happens for me when I'm taking pictures with my smartphone - I get this green lens flare/orb in some shots, and it seems to just be impacted by the sunlight and the angle I'm taking photos on. The only thing I've found to correct it is to change the angle I'm taking pictures from, but that doesn't always make for a decent solution depending on what you're photographing.

6 years ago

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edencaga

edencaga

This really happen sometimes especially if you are using phone or cheap cameras. It's kind of annoying tho but I think we just need to find out how we will fix this. I do have SLR and it get to happen to me sometimes but I found it that if your environment is darker than normal, it pixelate the shot and when you use high ISO, shots will get pixelated.

6 years ago

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Franzel2oo

Franzel2oo

Hi. Noise in images means there is not enough light entering your lens. Lenses see light and interprets that information to what becomes photographs or videos. When there is not enough light, you get grains. So to answer hiur question, get more light and try keeping your ISO under 600 or 800 in the worst cases. If you do this, you will take cleaber images and won't face the problem of picture noise.

6 years ago

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rlpzbeermoney

rlpzbeermoney

Noise is fine in my opinion. It makes the image more realistic in the right quantities. The really clean images scream over edited in my opinion. Though that's just me. I don't really pixel peep on any of my photos unless it's required for me to do so. (Like editing my photos myself because getting it printed)

6 years ago

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beerthooyah

beerthooyah

Noise photo is something new to me. All I know is that photos use to tell stories even if its still. You can tell many things about a certain pictures from its colors, lights etc. Try using Photoshop to reduce the visual noise as you were saying so that you can achieve the soundless noise that you want.

6 years ago

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