What is the best noise reduction software for photographers in 2024?
Photo noise reduction software can differ in the algorithms they use to deal with digital noise. There are softwares with advanced noise reduction features, allowing you to control the areas with too much noise and grain.
The only drawback of using photo noise reduction software is that, besides decreasing the luminance and chromatic noise, you may also lose sharpness and definition of smaller objects in the image. Here, you can find 15 softwares and plug-ins that are perfect for removing digital noise realistically without losing picture quality.
Verdict: Reducing noise in Photoshop is performed via Adobe Camera Raw, a plug-in for editing RAW files, which uses the algorithm similar to Lightroom. The biggest advantage of using Ps software is that you can choose the areas you want to work on and also apply a variety of noise reduction filters, do advanced types of noise reduction with blending or stacking.
All of the above-mentioned features make it the best noise reduction software for photos.
The price can be high, the cheapest way to get it is to subscribe to Adobe’s basic Creative Cloud photography plan at $9.99/month.
Verdict: Adobe Lightroom is one of the programs that cope with image editing perfectly. It also has the noise reduction feature. Look for the corresponding sliders in the Detail tab.
You can work with different sliders depending on the type of noise in the image and the effect you want to achieve. Thus, if you want to decrease the color/chroma noise, you will only work with the Color slider, which is set to 25 by default. Detail and Smoothness sliders will help you get additional control of the image.
If it’s the noise from light, you will need the Luminance slider (set to 0 when you start editing). Make sure you’re careful with this slider because overdoing it will make your image look artificial. The Detail and Contrast sliders will help you to perfect the image further.
Overall, this is the great universal noise reduction software unless the photographs are too grainy. In this case, you will be able to get an acceptable quality, however, other softwares can probably do a better job.
Verdict: Luminar was released in 2016 by Skylum, the US software developing company, and has been advertised as universal software for editing photos, an alternative to Lightroom.
The main advantage of Luminar is that it has an amazing user-friendly interface, great tools for auto-correction, and stunning plug-ins. Unfortunately, its Windows version is underwhelming. It’s slower at photo editing and also doesn’t have some powerful tools for managing files in the library, like search, face-recognizing tool, and geo-tagging.
Regardless of this, Luminar more than makes up for these drawbacks by offering one-of-a-kind features and filters. Besides, it can be used as a plug-in for Ps and Lr. So, it’s definitely worth downloading.
Luminar noise reduction is done by means of the “Denoise” filter. It’s a convenient tool for noise reduction which allows you to decrease luminance and chromatic noise separately, use a boost slider to set the effect to the desired intensity, and tweak opacity as well.
Verdict: Noise Ninja is developed by Picture Code, a US-based company specializing in photo editing software that is meant to provide quality of workflow and productivity. Noise Ninja is the best noise filter program for beginners. The principle of its functioning is very similar to other programs I have on the list.
To reduce the noise caused light, you can work with Smoothing, Residual Noise, and Detail sliders. Adjusting them is very convenient and the result can be seen straight away.
Color noise can be reduced with the help of Strength and Defringe sliders. This program has pop-up windows with handy information on the noise profile of your image by Frequency and Color. These two are factors that analyze the noise in the areas you work with.
Verdict: WidsMob is a highly functional software for easy and quick viewing of photos in various modes. This is one of the greatest solutions for finding and managing your photos and videos in electronic format in a convenient and simple way.
WidsMob offers multiple advantages, including user-friendly UI. Even newbies won’t have any problems while using the software. It also allows viewing a single image or several folder-based pictures at different angles.
Verdict: This software is similar to Capture One and Lightroom with great alternative tools for image editing, lots of camera profiles, and local adjustments.
In DxO Optics Photolab, noise reduction is performed by means of the ‘Prime Noise Reduction’ feature, which has been quite popular among users. It is so efficient that many photographers prefer using this program just for the task of reducing noise. So, it is truly one of the best noise reduction software for this particular job.
You can get the basic version (it is known as ‘essential’) with its famous noise reduction filter for $129 and can use it as a standalone application or integrate with Lr.
Verdict: Image Denoiser analyzes images with the help of AI technology and helps users remove noise by smoothing out pixels. This method makes it different from traditional noise reduction tools. This software is a perfect option for beginners and those who want to save time. You don’t need to figure out how to use a convoluted interface or advanced tools since you can just drop your image, and Image Denoiser will quickly edit it for you.
Verdict: VanceAI Image Denoiser is a handy tool for removing noise from images in a quick way. Thanks to on-board Denoise AI algorithms, the program accurately identifies noise and details, so a processed photo will look clearer and crisper with details preserved.
Though there have sprung up numerous denoiser instruments, this program stands out with its particular focus on recovering details while deleting noise and grain from pictures. Thanks to its AI nature, the denoiser provides you with top-notch results without compromising the initial photo quality.
Another bragging point of the program is its hassle-free operation. This means you can enhance your photos in virtually no time instead of manually dealing with noise areas and spoilt pixels. VanceAI Image Denoiser can fully satisfy the needs of photographers, bloggers, web designers, and other categories of users.
Verdict: This photo noise reduction software copes with the task even if your camera is not a professional one. Noise Reducer Pro reduces noise making the images beautiful and qualitative. Don’t worry if the lighting is poor or ISO values are high, this program will easily save the situation.
It is compatible with Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS platform. Skilled professionals, as well as beginners, will appreciate the capabilities of this photo noise reduction software. It has three noise reducing levels ‒ Light, Medium, and Custom. The program is very easy to use ‒ slide the custom bar and that is all. As a result, you will get sharp and noiseless images.
Verdict: If you are looking for the best noise filter program to replace Lr, pay attention to Capture One. It can import Lr catalogs and edit RAW files. Moreover, in some aspects, it’s even better than its Adobe alternative.
Capture One has some more efficient tools and more settings and options. Judging by the price, this program is created for professional shooters. Besides, its features are also not amateur-oriented.
Capture One has a “single-pixel” slider targeted at hot pixels reduction. It also offers such adjustments as luminance or chromatic noise removal.
Verdict: This photo noise reduction software is a great option for Lr fans since it works almost in the same way. It’s not surprising since they are developed by the same company. Moreover, Camera Raw is used as Lr plug-in to convert photos.
In order to find Noise Reduction controls, go to the Detail Tab. Here, you may manually control the process using sliders. For example, if you want to blur the noise and make it less visible ‒ use the Luminance slider.
Mind that in order to preserve the natural look, it should be set between 20-40. In case you want to bring the detail into the frame, resort to the Detail slider.
At first sight, it may seem that the Luminance slider is not very helpful but when you zoom in, you will see that it improves contrast in the grainy zones, making noise less prominent.
Begin your image editing work with the Color slider because the grain is composed of many various colors. You will easily saturate the colors and make them not so obvious.
In order to reduce color noise, you need only the Color slider. Moreover, you may also use the Detail and Smoothness sliders to apply some extra changes.
It is an easy way to reduce noise in all your images. There is no need to remove it at all, even if you work only with details and saturation, you will get great results.
Verdict: It is the photo noise reduction software that was specifically developed for digital noise removal. Topaz Denoise integrates itself into Lr and Ps and some other similar programs.
The software works according to this principle: it collects data, uses it to remove noise and recovers details. You may control the image using the Color and Luminance sliders.
Moreover, you may also remove debanding, restore shadows and color casts. Frankly speaking, it’s the best noise reduction software in terms of controls. It offers really many of them.
However, it will require more time to learn everything. Besides, you may create presets across the photos.
Speaking about file formats, you may use TIFF, JPEG, and, in order to get better results, convert RAW images to 16-bit TIFF files. It is not cheap, but the results will be great!
Verdict: Imagenomic created Noiseware to make photo noise reduction process simple and fast. You can reduce digital noise in several seconds. You don’t need any manual adjustments.
It offers various preset modes, which differ according to the amount of noise you are going to remove.
As for me, it’s the best noise reduction plugin for photos which I use. To get Noiseware, you have to pay $79.95 and it can be only used as Ps extension.
Verdict: Dfine 2 is qualitative denoise software’s plug-in that is popular for its fast and simple noise reduction procedure. It is included in the Nik Collection package.
Working with this software, you can manually choose the part of the picture where you want to reduce noise and the program selectively applies the changes.
This extension gained popularity when Google offered Nik Collection package free of charge and Nik Dfine was a part of this collection.
Then, DxO bought Nik Collection and now you have to pay $69 for it. You may use it as an extension to Lightroom, Photoshop, and DxO Optics Photolab.
Verdict: This photo noise reduction plug-in automatically defines the areas that require noise reduction. It analyses them and applies changes to remove the digital noise. Moreover, you may use default sliders to adjust noise.
In general, Neat Image Pro is really easy to use but mind that adjustments may influence sharp zones of the photo. So, be careful working with this program. It is available as an extension to Ps for $39.