Standard image editing software of the time offered rudimentary blur filters to combat this. However, applying a heavy blur to erase noise simultaneously destroyed critical details, edges, and textures, leaving faces looking like plastic and landscapes looking like watercolors.
Professionals can manually select analysis zones to capture luminance and chrominance noise variances. neat image 4.0 pro
The Core Crisis: The State of Digital Noise in the Mid-2000s Standard image editing software of the time offered