How To Fix Video Noise (Grain)

How To Fix Video Noise (Grain)

All photos, video and film can end up with lots of noise or grain when filming and shooting photos. When it comes to video, noise is more likely to appear in low light conditions. Here are some reasons which can lead to more noise:

1. Auto exposure in low light. The software in your camera compensates for low light by increasing the “gain” (in video this is also called ISO).
2. Manual exposure in low light. If your image appears too dark, you might be tempted to increase the ISO manually. Your picture will look brighter but there may be extra noise as a result.
3. Cheaper cameras or camera phones. More low budget cameras have sensors which are not as good at capturing light. This leads to you pushing up the gain (ISO) too high and adding more noise.
4. Increasing brightness in in post. If your footage looks a little dark, then you might try to increase brightness or exposure with an editing platform. At this point, any noise in your video becomes even more visible.
5. Shooting with Log or Flat colour profiles. If you use a Log or Flat setting in your camera, this can make your video much more sensitive to noise problems.

But no video camera is immune to adding noise. Put simply, there is one way to make sure you keep noise down: make sure there’s enough light when filming.

How do you know if there’s enough light? Because you will be able to keep your ISO level at an acceptable level. For example, when filming with a smartphone about 100 ISO or below is usually good enough. On my Samsung S9 I’ve filmed at 200-300 ISO without too much trouble.

Fixing Noise from a Video using After Effects

There are many programs which can help you reduce noise from your video. Most of them will cost you something. If you already have a Adobe CC subscription, then you will find a grain remover effect.

• After Effects – Effects – Noise & Grain – Remove Grain

The way grain gets removed is by smoothing out the image. In a way, the program is blurring everything a tiny bit to smooth out those noise artifacts. The downside of this is that some details and sharpness can be removed from the image at the same time.

That’s why the Remove Grain effect has some controls for you to adjust to try to keep the image sharp, whilst also smoothing out the grain. If you use this effect too much (blurring and sharpening) things can start to look a bit plastic.

Sometimes – for example on skin – this smoothing out process might even be desired. If you want your actor’s skin to look smoother for example. That’s why this effect sometimes comes in your smartphone as a “beautifier” effect.

SonduckFilm walks you through it here.

Fix Video Noise using DaVinci Resolve

DaVinci Resolve is a very powerful editing and colour grading program. The good news is that there’s a free version which is pretty powerful as well. In the recent update to Resolve 16, the noise reduction is even better than before.

Unfortunately, the noise reduction process in Resolve is only available with the paid for version.

Fix Video Noise using Final Cut Pro X

The newer version of Final Cut Pro now has noise reduction inbuilt. All these programs work in a similar way, but here is Computer Clan to give you a brief overview.

Fix Video Noise Using Neat Video

Neat Video is a video editing plugin specifically for polishing up your video, including noise reduction. The plugin can also deal with other issues such as artificial light flickering/strobing. It’s available as a plug-in for many video editing applications, including Adobe Premiere and Final Cut Pro.

It’s not the cheapest option out there (about $130 for the full version as a plugin for Premiere Pro, for example). However, it does have a lot of features which can get you out of a difficult situation. Recovered footage can save you time and money otherwise spent fixing or re-shooting.

There’s also a demo version for you to try out.

Justin Brown walks you through it here:

Smartphone Video – Beginner to Advanced

If you want to know more about smartphone filmmaking, my book Smartphone Videography – Beginners to Advanced is now available to download for members on Patreon. The book is 170 pages long and covers essential smartphone filmmaking topics:

Things like how to get the perfect exposure, when to use manual control, which codecs to use, HDR, how to use frame rates, lenses, shot types, stabilisation and much more. There’s also my Exploring the Film Look Guide as well as Smartphone Colour Grading.

Members can also access all 5 episodes of our smartphone shot Silent Eye series, with accompanying screenplays and making of podcasts. There’s other materials too and I will be adding more in the future.

If you want to join me there, follow this link.