I have a vested interest-slash-concern in this week’s free Deke’s Techniques episode, in which he takes a photograph of yours truly—a hand-held shot at high ISO under government-supplied lighting—and attempts to redeem it with Adobe Camera Raw. My interest is that it’s a flattering shot from a great day at Carlsbad Caverns; my concern is that the high noise is not only making my skin look blotchy, but horror-of-horrors, it’s causing my jacket to look purple.

But with some thoughtfully applied ACR adjustments, Deke effects this delightful transformation:

Working in ACR, Deke first uses the Temperature and Tint sliders, as well as controls in the HSL and Lens Correction tabs to (thank goodness) return my jacket to its proper neutral black. But the real work in this photo transformation happens in the Detail tab: First, Deke reduces the noise via the aptly named Noise Reduction tools, then he brings back the detail with the Sharpening sliders. You can see the final result below; I appear to be happy with the results. Check out the video and see if the approach might work for you own high-ISO photos.