1. A method of processing an image comprising a plurality of pixels, the method comprising the steps of: providing an edge map for a group of pixels from the plurality of pixels; classifying pixels in the group as one of at least smooth pixels and edge region pixels based upon the edge map, the edge region pixels being in an edge region with a predetermined concentration of edge pixels; identifying near edge pixels, each of which is in a window that also contains an edge region pixel; defining ringing noise pixels as pixels between the near edge pixels and the smooth pixels; and applying an edge preserving filter to the ringing noise pixels irrespective of whether the ringing noise pixels are edge pixels.