Whether you're working in an area without a ton of light or shooting with a camera without a ton of dynamic range, noise can become a pretty big problem. So, how do you fix it? Well, the most obvious and straightforward answer would be to add more light so your camera doesn't have to work so hard to expose the dark areas, but if that's not a possibility, there are ways to reduce or remove the noise in post. In this video from Surfaced Studio, you can learn how to do it in Adobe After Effects without the need for any additional software or third party plugins.

There are lots of ways to reduce the grainy footage in post, one of the most popular being Red Giant's Magic Bullet Denoiser (because it seriously works like magic). However, there are tools native to After Effects that work pretty damn well, too. The "Remove Grain" effect does a decent job, but you'll have to employ several additional settings, like "Temporal Filtering," along with it to get rid of blocky artifacts and other issues.

Noisy footage isn't always something you can avoid, but if you can, do it. Bring along an extra light in case you need it. If you can afford it, buy a camera that has more dynamic range so you can shoot in more low-light situations.

What are some other ways you can reduce noise in your footage? Share your thoughts down in the comments.

Source: Surfaced Studio

noiseNoise reduction
Editing & Post-Production