4.3. Post-Processing Noise

Let's face it: A long exposure taken at night will have some noise. That's the bad news. The good news is that you can reduce noise by post-processing in the digital darkroom.

Before I start showing you how to reduce noise in post-processing, you should understand that reducing noise inherently also reduces sharpness in an image. You can't have it both ways. Part of what makes an image appear sharp is the noise in the image. So successful post-processing for noise involves a balancing act.