Digital noise can make a great shot look grainy and artificial, but Adobe Lightroom makes fixing it a snap – especially if the noise was caused by dim lighting or high ISO settings. Here’s how.

To quickly tamp down the noise in a RAW image, use Lightroom’s AI-based Denoise tool. In the Edit panel, click the Detail heading; under Noise Reduction, click the Denoise button.

The Enhance dialogue presents a single Denoise slider and a preview of the result. Drag the slider to find a good balance between noise (low values) and softness (high values); the default of 50 is often a good amount. Click anywhere in the preview to compare the edited image with the original. Click Enhance to create a new denoised DNG file.

If the image is not in RAW format, or if you want more control over the result, click the Manual Noise Reduction heading to reveal its sliders. The Noise slider affects noise due to lack of light; the Color Noise slider affects areas where extra colour has been introduced.

Removing noise makes your image appear softer; experiment until you find the sweet spot that takes away grain without making the photo look too painterly.

Pro tip: Press \ to toggle between the original and enhanced images, or press Space bar to quickly switch to a zoomed-out view.

Sometimes the right level of noise reduction for smooth surfaces can wind up blurring the edges of objects. To restore some of that detail, click the triangle next to Noise and adjust the Detail and Contrast sliders. Under Color Noise, the Detail and Smoothness options help you protect colourful edges and prevent colour bleeding.

Can’t hit the perfect balance between grainy and soft? Err on the soft side, then let Lightroom introduce a bit of grain. This may seem counterintuitive, but Lightroom’s grain algorithms tend to be more natural than the grain from digital noise, resulting in a photo that’s more appealing to the eye.

Click the Effects heading, then increase the Grain slider ever so slightly – not so much as to undo your noise-removal work, but enough to make your image look more lifelike. (This is another place where using Space bar to toggle between zoom levels is helpful!)