Digital Photography Noise

I was on a mission. It didn't take more than a brief google search for "photography noise" to get answers.

The good news was it had nothing to do with my ability to see and capture an image. The bad news was that there's no solution, really. No matter what you do or what you own, digital noise exists as a digital photographer's thorn in the side.

Photography noise or digital noise is like feedback in audio. Basically, the camera, and the way the picture is captured digitally, creates blotches and blemishes on a tiny scale. It comparable to grain in a film image, except that grain on film is acceptable. Digital noise is not.

So what do you do about noise?

Buy an expensive program. Typically these programs will even out the "skin tone" of the photo while at the same time making the image more blurry. It sounds as if it's a delicate balance. Although there are at least half a dozen of these programs at your finger tips that have different features and methods of keeping your image true while cleaning its pores.

Buy better quality equipment. I guess there's my reason to graduate from my Kodak.

Mess with the ISO setting. The longer the exposure, the more likely the lighting will even out and you'll capture a more true image. Time to bring along my tripod!

I'm also thinking that perhaps the printed forms in postcard sizes, perhaps calendar sizes will be more forgiving of noise, so what I may not be able to remedy due purely to noise, I may still be able to publish elsewhere where they're not scrutinizing every pixel.

Otherwise, it looks like it's time for a significant monetary investment in my photography.

Any more information or corrections about noise, please comment on. I need all the help I can get!