Sometimes images have defects that are called noise— black, white, or colored specks ranging in size from very tiny to relatively large or all-over noise that gives surfaces a grainy look. Often you'll notice them in skin tones or in parts of a photo such as a clear blue sky. You know these artifacts are not present in the person's skin nor would they be present in the sky. You can use Paint Shop Pro’s Noise commands to remove noise from images. Before you decide which command to use, determine the type of noise that your image contains.
Important: These commands work on 16 million color and greyscale images only. To increase the color depth of an image, see Increasing the Color Depth of an Image.
Ways to remove image defects and noise:
An Advanced Noise Removal Filter Use the Digital Camera Noise Removal Filter to find and remove the noise artifacts that you know should not be in the photo. See Using the Digital Camera Noise Removal Filter.
Removing Single-Pixel Specks This command analyzes the brightness of each pixel and compares it to the surrounding pixels to determine if it should be removed. See Removing Single-Pixel Specks.
Removing Multiple-Pixel Black or White Specks Use the Salt and Pepper Filter command to remove multiple-pixel black or white specks, such as those caused by dust on film or video. See Removing Multiple-Pixel Black or White Specks.
Removing Noise While Preserving Edge Details Use the Edge Preserving Smooth command to remove noise in an image without losing edge details. See Removing Noise While Preserving Edge Details.
Removing Small Areas of Noise Use the Median Filter command to remove small random specks or areas of noise that are distinctly different from the surrounding area. See Removing Small Areas of Noise
Removing Noise While Keeping Texture Details Use the Texture Preserving Smooth command to remove noise or specks in an image while preserving texture details. See Removing Noise While Keeping Texture Details.
Softening the Image The three Softness commands are Soft Focus, Soften, Soften More. Soften applies a uniform blur to your image. Soften More applies the Soften command with more intensity. The Soft Focus command makes the image look as though it was taken with a camera using a soft focus filter. See Softening the Image.
Basic Steps in Improving Photographs
How to Approach Color, Contrast, and Saturation Adjustments