---
title: "Best Way to Reduce Noise in DaVinci Resolve"
author: "Alex Johnson"
category: Tips
excerpt: "Direct methods for applying temporal noise reduction, preserving sharpness, and isolating shadows in DaVinci Resolve Studio."
image: "/cutsio-thumbnail.svg"
tags: "DaVinci Resolve, Noise Reduction, Color Grading, Studio, Best Practices"
---

The best way to reduce noise in DaVinci Resolve is to apply Temporal Noise reduction on the Color page, separate the luma and chroma thresholds, and isolate the effect to the shadows to preserve detail.

Here are the direct methods to best reduce noise in DaVinci Resolve.

## What is the fastest way to apply Temporal Noise Reduction?
If you shot video in a dark room with a high ISO and the footage is ruined by crawling digital grain, you must mathematically average the pixels over time to smooth it out. Note: This requires the paid Studio version.

To quickly apply Temporal Noise Reduction:
1. Go to the **Color** page and create a new node at the very beginning of your node tree (before any color grading).
2. Open the **Motion Effects** panel (the icon looks like a square with a tracking line, next to the tracker).
3. Under **Temporal Noise Reduction**, set the **Frames** to `2`.
4. Change the **Motion Est. Type** to `Better`.
5. Increase the **Temporal Threshold** for both Luma and Chroma to `10.0`. The crawling grain will instantly disappear, leaving a clean image.

## How do you fix a "plastic" or blurry face after noise reduction?
If the noise reduction worked but the actor's skin looks like smooth, blurry plastic with zero texture, you pushed the Luma threshold too high, destroying the fine detail.

To fix blurry faces after noise reduction:
1. In the **Motion Effects** panel, click the chain-link icon next to the **Temporal Threshold** to unlink the Luma and Chroma sliders.
2. Drop the **Luma** (brightness/detail) slider back down to `0` or `5.0`. This brings the sharpness and skin pores back.
3. Keep the **Chroma** (color) slider high (e.g., `15.0`). Digital noise is mostly ugly color splotches; removing just the color noise cleans the image without destroying the sharp details.

## How do you isolate noise reduction to the shadows?
If the noise is only visible in the dark background corners but applying the effect slows down your entire timeline, you must limit the heavy processing to the dark areas only.

To isolate noise reduction to the shadows:
1. On the node with the noise reduction applied, open the **Qualifier** (Eyedropper) panel.
2. Turn off the **Hue** and **Saturation** checkboxes.
3. Leave the **Luminance** checkbox on. Adjust the `High` and `High Soft` sliders so that only the dark areas of the image are selected (turn on the magic wand Highlight tool to see the mask).
4. The noise reduction will now only process the shadows, saving massive computer resources and protecting the bright, clean parts of your video from unnecessary blurring.