Remove digital noise in Photoshop. Photoshop Tutorial - Get rid of digital noise in photography. Dust and scratches

Today we will look at what noise is in digital photos and how to avoid it.

Noise in digital photographs is a legacy of the grain found in the negatives and positives of film photography. However, grain is considered a noble phenomenon, but noise is not. In order to figure out where the noise comes from and how to deal with it, you need to understand its nature.

Digital noise appears as an element digital image... Its dimensions are close to the pixel size. There are two types of noise - chromatic and luminance. Noise level depends on the set ISO value - sensitivity as well as black level. Black level is a systematic correction based on the value of the dark current level. The level of dark current is measured by the device on a group of pixels that are in complete darkness. Let's not dive too deeply into the physics of the process. To put it as simply as possible, chromatic noise appears at high ISO values. Each camera has its own high ISO value. Let's give an example. Canon 350D exhibits noise at ISO 600. At the same time, noise is clearly visible. At the same time, Canon 5D mark II only starts to make noise in the photo at ISO \u003d 3000.

There is one rule to remember. It is better to avoid noise when shooting than to deal with it during processing. It is also worth adhering to a few more rules:

1. It is best not to shoot at night or at dusk with a high ISO.
2. It is better to shoot dark closed rooms with a tripod.
3. When shooting sunsets or sunrises, it is better to use slow shutter speeds than high ISO.
4. In low light, use a flash, but never overestimate the ISO.

If, after shooting, you find noise in the photos, you can use its suppression using software methods. To get rid of the noise completely, it will not be possible to remove it, but it is quite possible to noticeably reduce the noise level. All programs have a side effect after applying the filter. It manifests itself in a decrease in contrast and blurring of the image. If, for example, you use a snapshot of a car, then applying a noise reduction filter will lead to the loss of details in the edges of the body, the pattern of the wheels, the radiator grille, etc. Although smoothing the texture of the picture will do the photography good. To restore the sharpness and details of the image, you will have to use not only the program for removing noise, but also use masks and layers.

We will compare the principles and effectiveness of two noise suppression programs. The test will use an image of a Mazda car from Premus.

We will consider two popular software products is Imagenomic Noiseware Professional and also Noise Ninja. They are both released as a plug-in for Photoshop and as a standalone application. Let's start the test.

This is our test shot:

Let's try the Noiseware plugin first.

This is what the interface looks like:

The basic functions of the program include: noise reduction, amplification and protection of parts. There is also a set of presets for different types and genres of shooting. There are blanks from portrait to landscape. There are also tabs for more detailed setting plug-in is Detail, Frequency, Color Range, Tonal Range. Without going into the details of the program, let's look at the effect of applying the filter.

As you can see, the result is obvious. In a few clicks, we managed to save the image from a huge amount of noise, remove noise. Loss of parts is negligible. Notice how flat the sky has become.

The second is the Noise Ninja plugin.

This is what its interface looks like:

In this test, we are not using any special settings. All processing is done in automatic mode... And here's what we got.

The amount of noise has decreased significantly. Like Noiseware, Noise Ninja also reduced the grass details.

The following image shows the effect of overlaying a duplicate of the original layer with a mask restoring the grass detail.

This is how it looks:

Anyone who processes photographs faces problems caused by noise. The use of the described filters significantly improves the quality of the image. I hope this tutorial was helpful to everyone who is faced with the problem of noise in the photo.

But such photos are not always obtained, to put it mildly, and sometimes there are cases when he saw something out of the corner of his eye and reacted immediately. And only then I realized that the frame was somehow spoiled. I did not set the exposure correctly, nor the aperture, except that the photo is in focus and that is good. As a result, the photo is either underexposed or overexposed. But this photo is one, there are no repetitions and I do not want to delete. And if in cases with an underexposed photo it can somehow be saved, then with an underexposed photo serious problems begin. In particular, terrible digital noise comes out when converting. I’ll show you how to deal with him. I will say right away that there are a lot of methods of dealing with noise, and my method is not the only one, let alone the truth in the highest instance. I just share it. What if it comes in handy?

So, I'll tell you how I get rid of noise in photos. For an illustrative example, I specially made an underexposed photo. Well, let's get started?

So, there is such a photo:

After converting, we get this picture with terrible noise:

Step 1. Duplicate the layer in any known way.
Step 2. Here I must say that there is an incredible number of noise canceling filters. I personally use two. Noise Ninja and Imagenomic Noiseware Professional. Why exactly these two? Because I like them. I will not say here how each filter works, otherwise I will read this text to you until the morning. On the Internet, you can find a lot of information about the algorithm of their work.

So, step two. It is necessary to find out on which channel, and there are three of them in the RGB color space, there is more noise. In my case, there is a lot of noise on the red and blue channels.

Step 3. Open the Noise Ninja filter, select the red channel in the settings, set the desired settings. Exactly what numbers I am not saying, since each photo has its own settings. And press OK.

I repeat the same steps, but select the blue channel. At the output, I get the following picture:

Slightly smeared, lost skin texture. But that's okay. We will return everything later.

Step 4. I open the Noiseware Professional filter and set the settings as in the screenshot. I repeat, the settings are individual for each photo.

At the exit, I get an even more blurry photo. But we are not afraid grey Wolf and we move on.

Now comes the fun part. The picture is blurred, but there is still noise. So what to do? For many years of working with photographs, I tried a bunch of all kinds of methods and came to the conclusion that once and for all this rest of the noise removes the blur. There are several options for blurring in Photoshop, but I chose Gaussian blur. And there is a little nuance here. If you blur a photo, then it will be simply unrealistic to restore its clarity and texture later. Therefore, I am cunning. I blur selectively. There is a very famous and easy way to get rid of the raster on the scans of magazines. This is what I use for my own selfish purposes. I'll tell you step by step what I am doing.

Step 5. Create a new 8x8 px document:

Step 6. Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool in the toolbar and set the settings as in the screenshot:

Step 7. Make a selection on a transparent layer, go to Edit-Stroke:

Step 8. I set the settings as in the screenshot and press OK:

Step 9. I go to Edit-Define Pattern and press OK.

Step 10. Returning to our photo. Create a new layer and fill it with the created pattern:

Step 11. On the layer with the pattern, press CTRL + click. Make active the layer with the photo and press CTRL + J. Delete the pattern layer. We don't need him anymore. As a result, I have a transparent layer like in the screenshot:

Step 12. This is the layer that I blur in Gaussian. Each photo has its own settings. I have 1.7

Step 13. Merge the layers with the CTRL + ALT + SHIFT + E key combination. I delete the layer that I blurred and start jewelry work. It consists in the fact that I create a layer mask on the resulting merged file and carefully mask those places that are responsible for the sharpness of the photo. Namely, wrinkles, pupils, eyelashes, etc. I deliberately did everything with a mouse, not a tablet, so that it was clear that for this jewelry it was not necessary to have a tablet at hand.

Step 14. So, we have dealt with the noise. It remains to bring back the sharpness of the photo. Merge all layers with the key combination CTRL + ALT + SHIFT + E... Duplicate and sharpen in any known way. I am doing unsharp mask. Add a layer mask, change the blending mode of the layer to Soft Light, reduce the opacity of the layer to 50-30 and carry out another jewelry work, but already to remove the noise that blew through in several places.



Step 15. Merge the layers in the same way. Duplicate. And sharp again. This time I used the High Pass to reveal the lost wrinkles. Create a layer mask, change the blending mode of the layer to Overlay, reduce the opacity of the layer to 50 and again do some jewelry work to remove the noise that has come out.

Step 16. Merge all layers, add some contrast and voila - the photo is ready.

This method is quite laborious, but the result is worth it. I wish everyone to create such photographs so that no methods need to be used, but still I hope that someone will find this tutorial useful.

Photos with noise are a kind of defect resulting from poor lighting. A large number of washed out color spots are distributed throughout the image, greatly reducing its quality. This article describes how to remove noise in Photoshop. There are several options for solving the problem.

Instructions

The most the best way the fight against grainy noise is to prevent its appearance. Poor quality shots are obtained in low light conditions when the photographer has to increase the ISO values \u200b\u200ba lot.

Already at an indicator of 400, extraneous elements appear on the images. If the ISO is increased to 800, the noise cannot be avoided. The quality of the photo is greatly reduced due to blurred spots. You can remove defects using the tools built into the image editor.

How to remove noise in Photoshop using a filter

What if the photo is not in RAW format? How to remove noise in a photo in Photoshop if they were not removed at the stage of file conversion? To do this, open the picture in an image editor. Then you need to open the "Filter" section in the main menu. Next, go to the "Noise" tab.

The first filter to be tested is located here. It is required to select the "Reduce noise" line. Next, you should proceed with the settings. The Strength and Preserve Details sliders are responsible for removing or reducing luminance noise. If you increase the first indicator to the maximum value, you will notice that the defects in the photo will be eliminated, but the text in the picture will become blurry.

The problem is that dealing with luminance noise causes a decrease in image sharpness and detail. Attentive users will notice that a second slider has been added to the program so that the photo does not lose quality. After increasing the indicator, sharpness and detail appear, and with them noise. If there are no small elements in the image, then you can leave the second slider untouched.

Other settings

How to remove color noise in Photoshop? To do this, move the Reduce color noise slider. At the same time, the sharpness of the text will not decrease, the noise will disappear, but small details will lose their saturation. Users will notice that a colored halo has formed around the red spots. In rare cases, such changes may not be acceptable for the snapshot. For this reason, the minimum squelch values \u200b\u200bshould be set. If the shooting was set to ISO 6400, then the filter will not remove all defects in the image. Therefore, it is necessary to avoid high matrix sensitivity.

How to remove noise in Photoshop using the Adobe Camera RAW filter

First, download and install the plugin. Then you need to run the Photoshop program and go to the menu. After that, you need to mark the line "Open" in the "File" section. In order for the photo upload window to appear, you can press the CTRL + O keys. Next, you need to select a picture with noises. To the right of the File Name line, type Camera Raw. The snapshot will immediately open in the program filter.

Then you need to go to the settings. After that, you need to open the "Filter" section in the menu. Next, you need to mark the line Camera Raw. The filter window will appear. It can also be opened using the SHIFT + CTRL + A keys.

Plugin setup

How to remove noise in Photoshop using this filter? First, the user needs to configure the plugin. Check the box next to the "Checkout" item. When working with a filter, the user can immediately see the changes in the image. Next, go to the "Detailing" tab. It's the third icon from the left. You can change the scale of the photo using the slider in the bottom corner. It is necessary to increase the indicator to 300%. This is necessary so that the user can see the changes made.

Removing defects

How to remove noise from photos in Photoshop using the plugin? To do this, find the "Color" slider and move it to the right. Don't try to clean up this stage luminance noise. It is enough to remove the color dots. After completing the task, you can begin to reduce the luminance noise. To do this, you need to find the "Luminosity" slider and move it to the right. It is necessary to simultaneously observe the photograph. In each case, the value is determined individually. It is important to keep in mind one rule: the luminance index should always be greater than the chromaticity value.

As a result, the sharpness of the photo will decrease. To sharpen the image, you need to move the "Effect" slider to the right. You can also increase the value for Brightness Information. To save the result, click on the "Ok" button.

conclusions

When working with bitmap images, it is not recommended to use the built-in filter of the Photoshop program. The main reason is the appearance of color halos around bright image elements. It is very difficult to remove luminance noise from smooth surfaces without losing the sharpness of small details. The Camera Raw plug-in lets you increase ISO up to 6400 even for commercial shooting. The user can remove luminance and color noise while retaining fine details.

Reducing noise in any photo or image is now a reality with Photoshop CS2. This program has a feature called "Reduce Noise". You won't be able to completely remove it without catching important details of the subject of the picture, but there is a real opportunity to significantly improve the sharpness of the photo. This article will discuss the main ways of how to remove noise in Photoshop: color, brightness and other artifacts in images.

Why do artifacts appear in photos? The fact is that not every camera is capable of high-quality photographing of an object in the dark. Even if the lighting in the building is poor, then a photo created by a low-quality camera is obtained with noise that must be removed. This is exactly what noise reduction for Photoshop does without causing damage to the photo.

The main types of noise in the photo

As mentioned above, there are three main types of image noise. brightness, color and other defects of the image resolution JPEG. When zooming in on a subject in some photographs, you can see blue, green, and red pixels along its edges. Such an artifact is color noise, which can be reduced with the help of a specially designed Photoshop filter. Let's see how it works. In the menu, look for the item "Filter", clicking on it, select from the drop-down list "Noise" -\u003e "Reduce noise ..." and proceed to the photo editing settings.

The filter is not a program for photoshop of photos, but a usual additional built-in function. It is necessary to consider in more detail what you will have to face while editing a snapshot.

Settings window

The noise reduction filter contains a fairly large preview area on the left side and several sections with different settings on the right. As in the working area of \u200b\u200b"Photoshop", in the settings window you can immediately see the changes made to the image.

  • intensity;
  • reduce color noise;
  • sharpness;
  • storage level of the part contour.

Most of the settings are edited as a percentage using a slider, and the intensity is edited on a ten-point scale. Thanks to such easy settings and an intuitive editing window, you can easily figure out how to remove noise in Photoshop. In order to get the highest quality result for noise reduction, you must first of all set all sliders to zero and check if there is a check mark next to JPEG artifacts removal. After that, you can start adjusting various noise effects to the optimal level of the photo.

The viewing area can be zoomed in and out by zooming in and out on objects in the photo. This makes the changes made to the image more noticeable.

Editing color noise

Let's start editing the photo by reducing the color noise. What is he like? These are blue, green and red pixels around the outline of the object. We will try to remove them, using only a noise reduction filter. So let's get started.

  1. After we have loaded the photo and selected the "Reduce Noise" item, a window appears in "Photoshop" in which we need to enlarge the photo so that the red, green and blue dots are visible.
  2. Next, we proceed to remove them by dragging the slider on the ruler with the name of color noise reduction. During editing, we immediately look at the result in the preview area. As soon as the multi-colored dots disappear, you can immediately stop the slider at the required level and proceed to editing the next type of noise. It is impossible to say specifically what percentage to choose, because each photo is unique and differs in its artifacts.

How to reduce image brightness noise in Photoshop

After removing a color defect, you are still not happy with the result and still wondering how to remove noise from a photo in Photoshop? The next step is to reduce the brightness noise. Unlike the previous defect, black, gray and white dots appear on the photo. This is brightness noise. To get rid of it, you need to do a two-step adjustment of the settings. First of all, you need to set the intensity slider to zero and then start adjusting. It is important to remember that the photograph should remain as realistic as possible. To achieve this result, you need to look at the preview window and compare with the original image. Along with the intensity settings, it is important to preserve details. Therefore, we monitor not only the disappearance of noise, but also the safety of the object.

Advanced filter settings

If no photo editors on a computer are able to remove noise without significant loss of image detail, then the advanced settings of the noise filter will help. They are located in the same window as the usual settings, the only difference is that you need to move the checkbox from the "General" item to the "Advanced" item. New settings will appear to the right of the edit window. You must click on the tab with the name "To the channel". How to remove noise in Photoshop with this little add-on? The bottom line is that here you can get rid of defects separately for each channel. So, for example, there is one line for reducing blue pixels, another for removing green pixels and a separate one for red points. For each of them, you can edit the intensity of the noise brightness and save the details on each of the channels.

Why exactly these three channels need to be edited? The fact is that most of the images are based on blue, red and green colors. It can be assumed that just one channel will have much more noise than another. That is why it is effective to suppress them separately. This leads to the fact that the details of objects in the image will be much better preserved.

We have analyzed how to remove noise in Photoshop using a noise filter, now it is worth paying a little attention to artifacts of the JPEG format when saving a photo.

JPEG artifacts

What is this defect and why does it appear? No matter what kind of image you are using: fresh, just taken by a quality camera, or already saved in Photoshop with the .jpeg extension - noise appears in the image during compression. It doesn't even matter which photo editors on your computer you use, the JPEG image will always be of lower quality, it may even look like separate pixels. To get rid of such defects, you must check the box next to the item for removing JPEG artifacts in the noise filter settings window. Such actions will lead to the solution of the question: "How to improve the photo in" Photoshop "?"

  • Set the initial noise canceling filter parameters to zero by dragging all sliders to the left. Then adjust starting with the color noise.
  • Watch the result immediately in the preview window. Zoom in and out on the image in it for the highest quality effect.
  • If you are unable to remove noise from the photo, go to the advanced filter settings and get rid of green, red and blue points around the subject channel by channel.

More pictures on computer to enhance images

Today, there are many different programs to remove artifacts from photography, ripples and noise. And all so that your pictures are of the highest quality and most beautiful. You don't have to use Photoshop to remove brightness and color noise from your photo. You can download a specially created program for this purpose, for example, such as Color Reconstructor. Or install a plugin additionally Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw is a special software for Photoshop. It can handle a huge amount of photos, and with any known graphic extension and compression type. But in order for your picture to look as high quality and beautiful as possible, it is necessary not only to be able to correctly process images, but also to select a high-quality camera.

Photoshop filters Sharpness adjustment (Sharpening) and Reducing noise (Noise Reduction) - Two features that will help you improve the quality of low-light photos, especially if you can't control the light - for example, at concerts (this tutorial shows a promotional photo of the musical Fame taken by Tigz Rice) or weddings.

Translator's note : To work with this tutorial, you need the Camera Raw plug-in and Adobe Bridge, the same version as Photoshop. If you are using versionAdobePhotoshopCS6, then for photo editing in modeCameraRaw,you need to go to the menu File\u003e Overview in Mini Bridge (File\u003eBrowseinMiniBridge), then find the photo you want and right-click on it. From the dropdown menu select Open with\u003e Camera Raw (Openwith\u003eCameraRaw). When working withPhotoshop CS6 can skip the first two steps. If you are working in Photoshop CC, then forphoto editing in modeCameraRaw,you need to go to the Filter menu - Camera Raw.

Using these Camera Raw filters, you will be able to rescue photos that are not as sharp as expected.

In this tutorial, Tigz will demonstrate how you can comprehensively use these tools, including information on how each slider will affect your retouching result.

You will find out why the filter Reducing noise (Noise Reduction) sliders needed Colour (Color) and Brightness (Luminance) - and which one to touch first - and also why they are needed Details (Detail), Contrast (Contrast) and Mitigation (Smoothing).

In the end, Tigz will show you how to apply these filters so that you can come back to them later in case they need to be edited due to other adjustments made.

Step 1

Open the required image, convert the background layer to a Smart Object. To do this, right-click on the layer, then in the drop-down menu select Convert to Smart Object (Convert To Smart Object). This will allow you to edit the applied filters later.

Step 2

Go to the menu Filter \u003e Camera Raw (Filter\u003e Camera Raw). The Adobe Camera Raw plug-in menu opens.

Step 3

Step 4

When you are happy with the result, move on to the tools. Sharpness adjustment (Sharpening) and Reducing noise (Noise Reduction).

Both tools are in the tab Detailing (Detail), third from the left.

Step 5

Sharpness adjustment (Sharpening) is controlled by one main slider - the effect (Amount) - and three additional ones: Radius (Radius), Detailing (Detail), Masking (Masking).

Slider the effect (Amount) controls the amount of sharpness applied to the image. The "right amount" of sharpness depends on preference, but the 25-35 will be optimal.

Step 6

Radius (Radius) controls the area of \u200b\u200bcompression of sharpness around the edges of objects in the photo. The default is 1.0, which means just one pixel wide along each edge. You can group up to three pixels in total.

Again, the "correct amount" of the parameter will depend on the particular image and personal taste, but 1.0 will do the job perfectly.

Step 7

Slider Detailing (Detail) is responsible for the placement of sharpness in the photo: it is applied to an image with contrasting edges or low values \u200b\u200bwhen shooting at high ISO.

Default parameter Detailing (Detail) is set to 25, but as with the previous options, the "correct amount" depends on your preference as well as the photo itself. For live shooting, which can often be too grainy, 25 will be great.

Step 8

Masking (Masking) completes the set of four group tools Sharpness adjustment (Sharpening) and is the best of the three additional sliders. It allows you to have the most control over where the sharpness is applied.

If you hold down Alt while dragging the slider, you can see which zones will sharpen. All black areas will not be touched, while white areas are sharpened.

Step 9

Now let's go to the module Reducing noise (Noise Reduction). It removes unnecessary noise from images that occurs when shooting at high ISO, and also smoothes out tones if the camera sensor was set to maximum.

Working with Reducing noise (Noise Reduction), start with the slider Chromaticity (Color). It evaluates the color of the noise and blends it with a suitable color to suit a specific area of \u200b\u200bthe image. Usually it is enough to set the slider at the mark 20-30 .

Step 10

To improve the final result, you can use the secondary sliders - Detailing (Detail) and Mitigation (Smoothness).

Slider Detailing (Detail) controls how much detail is shown after color sorting. I usually leave it at its default value - 50% .

Step 11

Slider Mitigation (Smoothness) smoothes uneven color that occurs when shooting and works best at 60-80% .

Step 12

Work with the Chromaticity (Color) allows you to make small edits before moving on to the most serious slider - Luminosity (Luminance). The latter smooths the entire image, so a loss of sharpness can result.

Slider Luminosity (Luminance) is an incredibly powerful tool. For images shot up to ISO 2000, the mark is sufficient 25% .

Step 13

Brightness information (Detail) and Brightness contrast (Contrast) allows you to return some of the parts lost after use Luminosity (Luminance). However, noise usually returns along with the parts.

We went first to Chroma (Color), thereby minimizing the effect of Luminosity (Luminance), so both of the above sliders can be left at their default values.

Step 14

After you are happy with the result, click OKto confirm your changes. A new layer will appear in the layers panel Smart Filters... It contains all the information for the Camera Raw filter.

Step 15

Since we worked with a Smart Object, the changes made can be corrected. To do this, just double click on the Camera Raw Filter layer in the Layers panel.

Translator's note: inAdobePhotoshopCS6 this feature does not work. To edit the changes made, double-click on the small button with two stripes and two triangles above the photo thumbnail in the panelMiniBridge.

 

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