Noise is a topic in photography that seems built to cause confusion. Case in point: Several years before I bought my first DSLR, I had a point-and-shoot that I really wanted to learn how to use – but I was clueless about photography. When I read online that a high ISO setting “adds more noise” to a photo, naturally, I started thinking that a camera actually grows louder at those settings. I tested this theory by taking two photos at different ISO values, and – I could have sworn it! – the camera’s shutter was significantly louder at the higher ISO. For an embarrassingly long time afterwards, I went around thinking that high ISO values were fine to use, except in museums or cathedrals where silence was required. I doubt that many other people have been so hopelessly misguided about noise, but this article is worth writing regardless. Indeed, there are several aspects of noise that even advanced photographers often misunderstand. So, what is noise in photography, really, and what can you do to minimize it?
