any method which uses pixel values sampled from a local region about a pixel of interest to calculate an enhanced pixel value which replaces the pixel of interest those spatial filters which reduce spatial modulation for at least some pixels in an effort to remove noise from the processed digital image can be considered noise reduction filters those spatial filters which increase spatial modulation for at least some pixels in an effort to enhance spatial detail noise in the processed digital image can be considered spatial sharpening filters it should be noted that it is possible for a single spatial filter to be considered both a noise reduction filter as well as a spatial sharpening filter the present invention can be used with any digital image processing method which makes uses of a noise characteristic table to produce an enhanced digital image 204 referring to fig3 the preferred embodiment of the present invention employs a noise reduction module 22 as part of the image processing method to produce an enhanced digital image 204 as such the source digital image 201 and the noise characteristic table 207 are received by the noise reduction module 22 which produces on output a noise reduced digital image it is important to note that for many practical digital imaging image systems other image processing processors need to be included as long as these other image processing processors accept a digital image as input and produce a digital image on output one more of.