Blue-footed Booby - Soaring

Nikon D800, Nikon AF-S 80-400mm VR II, 400mm, f/13, 1/2000, ISO 2000
Galapagos Islands, Ecuador (2016)

Wow! ISO 2000...I still don't normally go over ISO 200 if I can avoid it. How do you find the noise in the full size image? Looks super clean cropped down.

James

The noise is not is not that bad. Especially if you expose to the right and are not trying to pull details out of shadows.

Thanks, Scott. I was wondering about that. May I ask what you are doing with the images? ie how many are you printing? What do you make when you see them at proof size (I proof at 12x18).

Cheers,
James

I make proofs at about the same size and I tend to see less noise when print than I do on the computer. I also, when sharpening, do selective sharpening. That being, I sharpen the whole image and then mask it all out. I then paint the sharpening effect back onto the subject or what ever else I want sharpened. I usually don't want to sharpen blurred out backgrounds or skies. I sometimes do light sharpening on interesting cloud formations. With an emphasis on "light sharpening".