Too noisy?

[Netskimmer]

I noticed some birds in a tree near my house and tried to take a few shots of them. It was almost sundown and the tree was in the shade so light was definitely an issue. I also had to use a fairly fast shutter speed because the little guys are fast and wouldn't hold still. Both were taken at ISO 1,000 F/8 with my 55-300mm and are pretty hevily cropped. Are they too noisy? I didn't want to lose any sharpness by opening up the lens but I may have been better off.

 

[tirediron]

They are fairly noisy, and the first one seems slightly soft. I think opening up to f5.6 and dropping your ISO by a stop would have been worth any slight loss of sharpness (and in reality, I doubt you'd notice it).

 

[Netskimmer]

Thanks, since the tree is by the house and I see nests in it they should be 'available' for a reshoot. I'll probably pick a better time of day and try openning up the lens and see what I get.

 

[djacobox372]

I'd blame the softness more on the consumer grade lens than noise. The D7000 is perfectly capable of taking tack-sharp photos at well above iso 1000.

 

[cgipson1]

^ I agree! Noise is not the main issue.... first one looks OOF! I would kick the ISO up a notch even.. and watch that shutter speed.

 

[MLeeK]

If that is a D7000 it can take going up in ISO a bit to keep that extra bit of sharpness. The first is definitely OOF. I am not seeing a noise issue in these, but it could definitely be there. I'd like to see a 100% crop.

 

[Netskimmer]

I will post a larger crop when I get home. I was thinking that my lens was limiting things but I am hesitant to blame hardware for sub-quality work, both were taken at 300mm so that probably caused some issusues as well. I was using auto focus and may have snapped the first one before the lens dialed in completely on him/her. They were very fast and would not stay in one place for more than a second and with all of the limbs in the way I was having some trouble nailing the focus.

 

[Netskimmer]

As mentioned, here are some extreme crops and the originals (converted to jpeg).

 

[MLeeK]

There is no bad noise problem there. It's just softness from either missed focus or more likely a consumer lens. The dark brown has a LITTLE noise in it, but ACR would get rid of that right quick without compromising your sharpness.

 

[FireRescueFL]

Noob opinion:

Too noisy for what? The cover of NatGeo? Then yes. But not anywhere near noisy enough to not keep as a personal photo or share on the Internet.

As has been stated multiple times above, the lack of sharpness is more of a problem than any noise there. Keep shooting and posting!

---Chris

 

[Netskimmer]

Thanks for all the responses. I'd say my limited experience, the consumer grade lens and the poor shooting conditions all played a part in the softness seen in the photos. I'll try shooting them in better light and see what that gets me. I am currently working on getting some better glass as well. As for experience, well I'm working on that too.