How to Quickly Reduce Noise in Adobe Photoshop CC

A lot of times, especially in low light situations, a picture can get grain in it. This grain and noise will reduce the clarity of the image, and overall reduce the quality of the content. Today I will show you how to quickly reduce noise in Adobe Photoshop CC.

How to Quickly Reduce Grain in Adobe Photoshop CC

First Pass

1. Import the image into Photoshop.
2. Zoom into the image so you can see the noise more clearly. You can use the zoom tool for this.
3. Click on your image in the layers tab and hit ctrl/cmd + j to duplicate it.
4. Now, with the newly duplicated layer, go up to Filter->Noise->Reduce Noise.
5. This will bring up a dialogue box with the noise reduction settings.
6. Go to Strength and increase it until you see the image soften up.
7. Go to Reduce Color Noise and increase it at as well.
8. Feel free to play with the other settings to see if they improve the image or not.

Second Pass

1. Go to your duplicated layer, click on it, and click ctrl/cmd + j again to make another copy.
2. Go up to Filter->Blur->Surface Blur.
3. Change the radius to a smaller value around 5.
4. Update the threshold to around 10.
5. Go up to Filter->Sharpen->Smart Sharpen.
6. Make sure Basic is Selected.
7. Change the amount to a value around 90%
8. Go to the radius and change it to 1px,
9. Change the setting to Gaussian Blur.
10. Now go select this layer, go to the Opacity slider, and reduce to about 70%

Grouping

1. Select both the layers, and hit Ctrl + G to group them together.
2. To make a selection on choosing an area to resharpen, follow the above tutorial at 2:14 onward.

There you have it. A simple formula to quickly reducing grain in Adobe Photoshop CC. With some adjustment, you should be able to reduce grain on any shot you like!

If you have any questions or comments, let me know in the comments section below!