How to Degrain Video in Premiere Pro (2025 Guide): Easy Steps & AI Alternative

In digital filmmaking and video editing, grain or noise refers to the random visual distortion that appears as speckles or rough textures on your footage. This often happens due to low light, high ISO settings, or heavy compression. Such visual noise can make even professional videos look unpolished and distract viewers from the actual content.

That's where degraining comes in — the process to remove grain from video to produce smoother, cleaner, and more cinematic results.

In this guide, we'll break down:

• What degraining actually means and how it works
• How to degrain video in Premiere Pro using built-in tools
• A smarter AI alternative with UniFab Denoise AI, which automatically cleans and enhances footage with one click

Whether you're a filmmaker, YouTuber, or editor, this tutorial will help you achieve sharp, noise-free visuals without sacrificing detail.

What Does “Degrain” Mean in Video Editing?

Degraining is the digital process of removing visible noise or film grain from images or videos to restore clarity. It’s a core step in visual effects (VFX) and digital compositing, where clean footage is required before applying effects, color correction, or green-screen keying.

The degraining process works by analyzing the pixel patterns in each frame and identifying random noise that doesn’t belong to the true image texture. The software then filters or averages out these noisy pixels while preserving fine details like edges and motion.

In modern workflows, degraining can be performed through:

• Manual tools such as the Median or VR Denoise effect in Adobe Premiere Pro
• Node-based tools in programs like DaVinci Resolve, Nuke, or Houdini
• AI-driven software such as UniFab Denoise AI, which uses deep learning to automatically detect and remove grain while maintaining natural colors and textures

A related technique called regraining adds grain back to the degrained image to match the film’s original aesthetic — often used to blend CGI elements seamlessly with real footage.

Why Degraining Matters: The Impact of Noise on Video Quality

Video grain doesn’t just make footage look rough — it directly affects how audiences perceive quality, professionalism, and trust. In modern digital media, especially on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Vimeo, every pixel of clarity matters.

• Visual clarity defines audience trust.

Studies show that 87% of viewers say video quality directly impacts how much they trust a brand or creator. A clear, degrained image signals professionalism, while a noisy one looks unpolished and distracts from your message.

• Poor lighting and high ISO amplify digital noise.

When shooting in low-light environments, cameras boost sensor sensitivity (ISO), which introduces unwanted luminance and chroma noise. This can create a “static” or “film grain” effect, especially visible in shadows and gradients.

• Compression adds more artifacts.

Uploading videos to social platforms or exporting with lower bitrates causes compression artifacts — blocky textures and extra noise that exaggerate grain even more.

• Degraining restores realism and color depth.

By removing these irregular noise patterns, degraining enhances contrast, restores color fidelity, and helps your video look closer to what the eye naturally perceives. For professional editors, this step is essential before applying color grading, keying, or visual effects (VFX).

Ultimately, degraining is not just about making a video look “cleaner” — it’s about ensuring every frame aligns with cinematic standards, ready for grading, compositing, and final delivery.

How to Degrain Video in Premiere Pro (2025)

Adobe Premiere Pro provides several native tools to remove grain and noise from video without relying on external plugins.
Among them, the Median and VR Denoise effects are the most effective for cleaning up noisy footage.
Here’s a step-by-step process to degrain video in Premiere Pro while preserving natural detail and avoiding over-blurring.

Step-by-Step Guide: Remove Grain Using the Median Effect

Step 1. Import your footage
Open Premiere Pro, go to File > Import, or use the shortcut Ctrl + I (Windows) / Cmd + I (Mac).
Drag your noisy clip onto the timeline for editing.

Step 2. Apply the Median effect
Go to the Effects panel and search for Median.
Drag it onto your clip. This effect smooths out uneven pixel noise and is often used as a quick degrain method.

Step 3. Adjust the Radius value
Open the Effect Controls panel, locate the Median settings, and increase the Radius gradually — start from 1.0 and adjust up to 3.0.
Higher values remove more grain but can blur textures, so keep it balanced.

Step 4. Use masks for selective degraining
To target only specific areas (like dark corners or skin tones), add an ellipse or pen mask under the Median settings.
Then feather the edges slightly (10–20) for a natural blend.

Step 5. Add subtle sharpening (optional)
After degraining, go to Effects → Sharpen and set the Amount to around 10–15.
This brings back slight detail lost during noise reduction.

Step 6. Preview and export
Render a short preview using the spacebar or “Enter” key.
Once satisfied, export with File → Export → Media, choosing H.264 or ProRes format depending on your output needs.

Pro Tips to Avoid Over-Smoothing

• Keep your Radius low for talking-head or close-up footage.
• Avoid degraining on moving areas using static masks.
• Combine Median with Lumetri Color for extra clarity — mild contrast adjustments help recover natural texture.
• For extremely noisy clips, Premiere’s manual degraining may not be enough — in that case, consider using AI-powered tools like UniFab Denoise AI (explained below).

Why This Works

The Median effect in Premiere Pro averages pixel values within a defined radius.
It helps remove random high-frequency noise while retaining essential shapes and motion.
However, it doesn’t analyze motion across frames — that’s why AI-based methods can achieve cleaner, more detailed results with less blur.

AI Alternative: Degrain Video Automatically with UniFab Denoise AI

While manual degraining in Premiere Pro works for moderate noise, it can struggle with footage shot in low light or with heavy compression. In such cases, an AI-powered degrain tool like UniFab Denoise AI provides a faster, smarter, and more consistent solution.

Why AI Tools Handle Grain Better

Traditional noise removal methods (like the Median effect in Premiere Pro) analyze only the current frame, which can blur details or soften edges.
In contrast, AI-based degraining tools use deep neural networks trained on thousands of noisy and clean video pairs. This allows them to:

• Analyze motion between frames and detect temporal noise patterns.
• Separate real texture from random noise, preserving edges and fine details.
• Automatically adapt to varying noise levels across different scenes.

As a result, AI degraining produces sharper, natural-looking footage that requires little to no manual adjustment — perfect for creators who want a quick, cinematic finish.

Key Features of UniFab Denoise AI

UniFab doesn’t just remove grain — it also enhances clarity, contrast, and color balance simultaneously, delivering professional-grade results even from low-quality footage.

Step-by-Step: How to Degrain Video with UniFab Denoise AI

Why Choose UniFab Over Manual Editing

With UniFab Denoise AI, you can achieve a perfectly degrained, polished video without complex settings or steep learning curves. It’s the ideal complement to Premiere Pro for editors who value both speed and quality.

Degrain vs Denoise: What’s the Difference?

At first glance, degraining and denoising might sound identical — both aim to remove unwanted visual artifacts from video. However, they address different sources of noise and require slightly different processing methods.

What Is Degraining?

Degraining refers to removing visible film grain — the random texture that appears on footage, especially when shot in low light or with high ISO settings.
In professional VFX (visual effects) and color grading workflows, degraining is usually performed as a pre-cleanup step before compositing or green-screen keying. The goal is to achieve a smooth, consistent image surface that’s easier to edit and match between shots.

Common tools: Adobe Premiere Pro Median Filter, DaVinci Resolve Degrain, UniFab Denoise AI (AI degrain mode)

What Is Denoising?

Denoising, on the other hand, targets digital sensor noise and compression artifacts. This type of noise appears as flickering color dots or blocky textures, often caused by small sensors or heavy video compression.

While degraining deals with film-like texture, denoising handles electronic interference and codec-induced noise — more common in smartphone or webcam recordings.

Common tools: Premiere Pro VR Denoise, After Effects Remove Grain, Topaz Video AI

Key Differences

How AI Tools Like UniFab Combine Both

Unlike traditional filters that treat degraining and denoising as separate steps, AI-powered video enhancers such as UniFab Denoise AI combine both processes automatically. Its deep-learning model analyzes grain, pixel noise, and motion artifacts together, producing clean footage that retains detail and depth — without needing to switch between different tools or manual settings.

In short, degraining smooths texture, denoising removes digital interference, and UniFab does both at once, intelligently balancing sharpness and realism.

Conclusion

Degraining helps you transform grainy, low-light, or compressed footage into smooth, cinematic visuals. While Premiere Pro offers effective tools like Median and VR Denoise, manual tuning can still blur details or take extra time.

For faster, high-quality results, try UniFab Denoise AI — an intelligent, one-click solution that automatically removes grain and preserves fine textures.

FAQs about Degraining in Premiere Pro

How do I remove grain from video in Premiere Pro?

To remove grain from video in Premiere Pro, apply the Median or VR Denoise effect:

1. Go to the Effects panel → search for Median → drag it onto your clip.
2. Increase the Radius slightly (1–3).
3. Use masks to limit the effect to specific areas.
4. Optionally apply Sharpen afterward to restore fine detail.
   For heavy noise, use an AI solution like UniFab Denoise AI to clean the video automatically while preserving textures.

Why is my degrain effect not working properly in Premiere Pro?

If your video still looks noisy after applying the Median filter, the issue might be severe sensor noise or compression artifacts. Premiere’s native filters are frame-based and may blur details. In that case, try AI-based degraining tools such as UniFab, which analyze motion across frames and remove noise more accurately.

How do I fix blurriness after degraining?

Overusing the Median filter can soften details. To fix this:

• Reduce the Radius value.
• Add light Sharpen or Unsharp Mask effects.
• If possible, use AI degraining tools like UniFab Denoise AI, which preserves sharpness while cleaning noise.

How to prevent grainy footage in the first place?

• Use adequate lighting to avoid high ISO.
• Shoot in a higher bitrate or RAW format.
• Avoid over-compression during export.
• Keep your camera’s ISO under 1600 in low-light conditions.
  Prevention minimizes post-production degraining needs and preserves natural texture.