How to Remove Noise From Pictures for Free ~ Enhance Photography Skill

When photographing in low light conditions, without using a flash, we set the ISO high and use a slow shutter speed, often resulting in photographs with noise. This noise, or noticeable speckles of color throughout your photograph, is not only distracting, it lowers the image quality. Some high-end digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras allow for higher ISO settings without noise, due to their larger, full frame sensor. Some camera manufacturers have built-in noise reduction firmware. For those of you who have a digital point-and-shoot camera or an entry level DSLR with a smaller sensor, there are ways to reduce the visual appearance of noise in your photos.

Instructions

Low light images may require noise reduction in post processing.

Launch your photo editing software: Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, iPhoto or Aperture. There is a noise reduction option built in. Open the photo you'd like to modify.

Photoshop users: Click "Filter" "Noise Reduction."

iPhoto users: Highlight the photo, click "Edit" from the bottom toolbar click "Adjust."

A window will appear containing the De-noise slider.

Capturing images in low light conditions

Adjust the slider to reduce noise. Pay attention as you move the slider---as the noise decreases, the photo will appear softer or more plastic. Use your judgment to find a nice balance between the noise and the softness.

Save your photo when you're happy with the results.

Search online for free software or for a free demo.

Search for free noise imaging software, available online, to accompany Photoshop (or another photo editing software), for a higher quality photograph after noise reduction has been applied. Neat Image or Noiseware plug-ins are both available to download for free on either Windows or Mac operating systems. Some professional plug-ins may have a demo you can download for free for a set amount of time, such as 30 days.

Select the plug-in for your operating system.

Select the Neat Image plug-in for your computer operating system---Windows or Mac. Select "Download for Windows" or "Download for Mac" and follow the installation instructions.

Open the image you'd like to work on, in Photoshop. To start the Neat Image plug-in, select "Filter" "Neat Image" "Reduce Noise." With the default selection of "Device Noise Profile," select "Auto Profile." This will automatically select the areas that need noise reduction, but will leave the areas containing detail.

Select "Noise Filter Settings" in the upper toolbar. A pop-up window will appear allowing you to adjust the Noise Reduction settings: Luminance, controlling how much noise is removed, and Chrominance. You will also have the ability to adjust the Sharpness of the image. Click the "Preview" button to switch back and forth between the filtered photo and the original to review your work.

Beautiful noise-free image in a low light condition

Click the "Apply" button in the bottom right corner of the plug-in window when you are finished. The photo file will process and will automatically take you back to Photoshop, showing your updated, filtered photo.

NDNoise is a nice stand-alone image editing software.

Select "Download NDNoise.Win.zip" (or for Mac select "Download NDNoise.OsX.zip") from the NDNoise website. NDNoise is a free stand-alone noise reduction software that is both easy to install and easy to use and is compatible with all machines---Windows, Mac Os X, Lunix and Unix.

Launch NDNoise. A window will appear and prompt you to select a photo from your files. Select the photo you'd like to modify. (After you've finished with your first photo and still have NDNoise open, select "Load" from the left toolbox to open a new image.)

Adjust the sliders to enhance your image.

Adjust "Noise Filtering" by moving the slider up to increase filtering and down to decrease filtering. Adjust "Dots/Spots/Edges Smoothing" by moving the slider up to increase filtering and down to decrease filtering. Do the same to adjust "Resharpening" and "Retexturing."

Click on the "Calc" button in between adjustments to see a preview of your work. Use the zoom keys to take a closer look at your photo. Click the "Reset" button if you're unhappy with your results and would like to start over.

Take your time adjusting the settings for beautiful results.

Click the "Expert" button from the toolbar in the upper right corner to fine-tune the adjustments in Color Separation, Color Precision, Influence Radius and Fast Factor. Click "Save" when you're happy with your results.