Max, welcome to the frustrating world of photo processing.

I've bitten the bullet, or swallowed the bitter pill that Adobe offer, and gone for the Photoshop CC deal at $9.99 per month. Don't get me started on what I think of Adobe's price gouging tactics in Australia.

I'm generally reasonably pleased with it, however, and isn't there always a 'however', for me, the noise reduction program sucks, big time.

I try to avoid shooting at high ISO levels, but occasionally, in the interests of getting maybe a reasonable shot, I get sucked into pushing it that little bit higher. It almost never works, but then, unfortunately for me, I'm a bloody hard marker of my own work.

There are commercial noise reduction programs available for processing in RAW which may, or may not, interfere with info you don't want touched. In my limited experience, I've noticed that noise reduction seems to equate with an equal reduction in sharpness.

I suppose the bottom line of this dissertation is to avoid, if possible, shooting at high ISO levels. Add light with a flash, use different sun angles or whatever.

Some dude, who is a hell of a lot smarter than I am, made the statement that 'photography is all about light'.

It's how we use it that defines us as photographers.