Is Noise Bad in Photography?

When I first started photography, way back in the early 2000s, I primarily learnt what I was doing using an old SLR camera with Ilford HP5 400 ISO film stock. This is a classic black and white film, used by countless millions. Back then it cost an almost unbelievable 50p per roll for 36 images. At least that’s what I remember. Good luck finding anything for 50p now!

400 ISO has a pleasing grain to it, and was considered ‘standard’ for most applications. Generally, 3200 was the highest ISO film you could buy off-the-shelf, and that was only really used by specialists like sports photographers.

Fast forward to 2025, and we now have cameras that can push past 150,000 ISO without blinking an eye. ISO is almost meaningless; not that it ever really meant anything anyway other than a way to designate a film’s approximate sensitivity to light under certain conditions. But that's a different topic.

Modern cameras can capture images in almost total darkness, and yet we still worry and stress about “noise”. YouTube and the photo press is full of people critiquing the noise produced by cameras, and using this as an almost arbitrary benchmark on whether a camera is considered 'good' or not - hint; it's not overrly important.

Firstly, this approach completely ignores the fact that most cameras pushed to their extremes will start to fail the uncontrolled tests done by reviewers (many of whom have agendas to push). Second, most people will never even approach those extremes, and third, these extremes are so far beyond what was possible even five years ago that it's like comparing an F1 car to a horse and cart.

Using noise as an indicator of a camera’s capability is silly. In 2007, the Nikon D80 took great pictures up to about ISO 800, then it started to become noisy. But in black and white this looked generally acceptable, and as I’d been shooting ISO 400 film for the past few years, having the option to go to 800 without much fuss was a revelation. By 2010, the Nikon D700 could shoot excellent images up to ISO 6400, well beyond what most people needed. At this point, nearly all cameras had reached a point of being excellent in low light and surpassed what film could do. And they’ve simply become increasingly better ever since. Noise has really ceased being an issue for 99% of use cases.

And yet…I was still terrified of going above ISO 400 for YEARS because of the old complaints about noise, and how it degrades images. The constant reviews about noise, critiques mentioning noise, pervasive attitude that noise equals bad. All put me off pushing the ISO. And it's wrong.

As a result, I have thousands of photographs that were taken with the ISO too low, all because I was scared of noise creeping in to my photos. I was fixated on keeping the ISO as low as possible, using ridiculously wide apertures or slower shutter speeds, sacrificing depth of field or getting motion blur rather than cranking the ISO. And for what? Smoother images? A noisy photograph that captures what you want is better than a failed photograph.

All my approach did was create a catalogue of photographs that are poorly exposed in some way, failed to capture what I wanted the way I wanted, or simply didn’t live up to my expectations. Had I just pushed the ISO up, I’d have achieved the exposure or moment I was after, and would have an image I’d be happier with, even with slightly more noise in it. And this is before we talk about editing and utilising noise to add character or the effect of film grain.

Now, in 2025, I sometimes ADD grain to my images to simulate film or give a bit of texture and patina to the shot. I also shoot at whatever ISO is required because I care more about the subject and overall photograph than the potential noise it may have.

Most people look past noise. Many don't even notice it. Especially when viewing on digital devices. Which is almost everyone now. Don't let the snobs tell you otherwise. Yes, cameras have better noise control now, and less noise in general, and yes, editing software can do a very good job of removing it, too. But it's part of your image and creativity. Don’t let the internet tell you noise is bad or that high ISO is a terrible idea. Don't let the internet put you off the camera model you want just because someone says it doens't do something at the extremes, or that another one does it better. All cameras are incredible now and they have been for over a decade.

Use the camera you enjoy using. You'll take much better pictures if you like your camera first and foremost. So get the shot. Take the picture. Use the settings you need to use to capture the images you want. Don’t worry about noise, it’s part of the process and part of your image-making. Embrace it.