Red-breasted Nuthatch

I find that the jpg compression makes this image look slightly worse on this posting than in Lightroom. So, here's a close-up of the bird's head that might give you a better idea of the resolution and noise.

Very nice, Steve. I don't find the noise level in this one objectionable at all. Certainly an improvement over the last generation of cameras. This should open up a lot of possibilities. You might give Neat Image a try-it uses a different NR method than most and I've had decent results with it in most cases. A really cool pose this guy gave you.

Love this bird and this image of him makes me want to head out to the woods. Steve you will get lots of different takes high ISO noise but this is really pretty nice as far as color and setting. Yes there is lots of noise in the BG and the head is a little soft but it really does not bother me. People here are looking for comments on what would make a prefect image. Thats the great thing about this board is the fact that we are all trying to achieve the highest quality possible. I for one have cleaned up my shooting a ton because of this site and its always nice to smooth out rough edges from bad shooting habits. Like Dennis pointed out the new cameras are really good in the high ISO ranges. I make my living shooting high ISO news images for newspapers and magazines and have never not been published due to noise from any of the hundreds of clients that I sell too. The great thing about shooting high ISO is that you can shoot now when before the camera was in the bag. Also there are ways now in PS to fix most of the noise problems we encounter with noise filters.

I think you did a fine job on the noise reduction as there is still plenty of detail - but the head is too soft for my liking and I don't know if this photo was worthy of all the PS work you did compared to other images you have taken @ high ISO's.

Thank you all for your very, very helpful comments. I'm looking forward to saying more after another day has passed. However, I felt I should immediately correct the impression voiced by Luke that I spent hours processing this particular image. Processing this image only required about ten minutes. The time I was referring to was the time spent so far in learning how to deal with all of my high ISO images.

Don't listen to me - listne to Steve!

Thank you, Luke. However, after all these years of trying I still manage to miscommunicate in English!

Steve, it's quite a humorous pose from this little guy--I like it a lot. The noise in the image doesn't bother me much, but the background is pretty distracting. I do agree that the head looks a bit soft.

I think the bottom line is that it's better to get a shot than to get nothing. The fact that you can shoot at these ISOs and get good, usable images is great. Very few shots are perfect--it's all about making the most of the moment and hopefully getting something you can use. You're gaining some valuable experience in terms of your own personal preferences (and lots of other opinions) on where that balance between ISO, fine detail, and NR should lie. I think personally, some graininess is preferable to overdone NR. I appreciate this series of posts.

I think it’s time for some last comments now, before this image is buried by the many postings to this site. Dennis, I have recently been reviewing other noise reduction programs. Your comment motivated me to take the plunge and choose Neat Image. Neat Image and the Nik Software suite have different strengths and weaknesses. I’ve started examining ways of combining them. With this note I’ll post my latest combo effort. I can see a definite improvement in detail. I'll keep working on this topic. Thank you for such a useful recommendation, Dennis!
The comments from all of you regarding image quality were very informative and really help me to obtain a perspective on all this. I am very grateful for them!

I'm impressed by the difference in the Neat Image repost. both noise and detail look noticeably improved.

I really like the pose and the detail in the bird looks pretty good. I'm seeing a fair bit of noise in the bg, if it were mine I would do selective noise reduction on the bg. A really nice high iso image Steve

Thank you both for your very encouraging comments. Selective NR is something I'm experimenting with. It's easy to make the background look smoother using it. However, noise reducing the subject without causing artifacts in the subsequent sharpening step is really the main NR challenge. Of course, the less we need those software steps the better. A sharper raw image makes everything easier. In line with that, Nate, I think a particularly useful recommendation that you made earlier was to decrease aperture size. Using the Canon DOF calculator I was amazed at the short DOF of my 400 mm lens at 10 ft and f/5.6...or even f/6.3 (0.48 inches) and unevenly distributed about the focus point at that!. To be continued with another post (tonight I think!).