A method of reducing mosquito noise in a digital image. As mosquito noise is often most plainly visible in the "background" of an image (e.g., the sky or some other backdrop to objects within an image), the luminance value of the background of the image is first determined. Then, the luminances of the pixels of the image are compared against this "background luminance" to determine which should be considered as part of this background. The luminances of these background pixels are then averaged so as to smooth out the representation of the background, and reduce mosquito noise.
