Photographers sometimes have to take photos in low light situations. One way to get a reasonable shutter speed is to crank up the ISO setting. While the picture may be exposed just fine, the high ISO setting will often lead to noise. The higher the setting, the more noise. Newer cameras do what they can to implement noise reduction. In other cases, you can turn to software to help reduce the noise.

One such tool is Imagenomic Noiseware. It is a standalone application and comes in three versions ranging from completely free to $49.95 depending on what features you need. Obviously the free version has a much more limited feature set. There are also free 15-day trial versions of the two paid versions if you want to give them a test drive. The standalone version can open files in JPG, PNG, BMP and TIFF format and is independent of any specific image editor.

If you would prefer a plug-in, there is separate product. The Noiseware plug-in will only work in Adobe Photoshop CS3 (or higher) and Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 (and higher). It will not work in Corel PHOTO-PAINT. There is also a 64-bit version for use with 64-bit versions of Adobe Photoshop. As with the standalone version, you can give it a try before buying. Two versions are available that sell for $49.95-$69.95 depending on the features you require.