Flying fuzz and high ISO

[Bill Dix]

This Great Blue Heron is a standard fixture at my local lake. Failing light with dark rain clouds and shaded perch gave me an opportunity for some flash practice. High ISO probably compromised the IQ (some noise in the neck?), but I liked the preening pose, and thought the D7000 handled the ISO fairly well under the circumstances. C&C appreciated.

D7000 | 500f4 + 1.4 TC | ISO 4000 | 1/640 (shutter priority) @ f/5.6 | 0EV camera, -1.7 EV Speedlight | monopod

[Melissa Groo]

This is really wonderful, Bill. I love the flying fluff, with the perfect preening HA, and wonderful depth of field. Great detail and EXP. I don't see any noise.
I must have hundreds of blue heron shots, seems to be the easiest bird to approach around these parts.

[Karl Egressy]

Excellent datails, Bill. ISO 4000? It is amazing!!!

[Don Lacy]

Cool pose and I love the eye peeking out

[arash_hazeghi]

Great shot, I like the preening pose, there is visible noise but given that it was ISO 4000 and D7000 it looks pretty good, MUCH better than the 7D.

[Mital Patel]

Oh Bill,

I wouldn't have thought of doing that. But you really push the Alert button on that D7000 ..

Indeed i loved this quality of an image given that its taken at 4000 ISO.

And i like the work you did on the background,, just that i think you might wanna try reducing those maroon patches power.

Specially on LRC and above that the bigger once..

Really Really good

[Bill Dix]

Thank you all for the feedback. Actually, Mital, I did nothing to the BG except for toning down a few of the brightest spots and running a heavy dose of Topaz NR. In fact, that's about all I did in PP, besides a 25% crop, correcting a little bit of flash eye, and USM. But I agree that toning down the maroon patches might improve it. Thanks for the comments.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Superb image Bill. You pushed the limits but came up with great results. Great pose, love the fluff, very sharp, and my favorite is that eye. The bit of noise on the bird notwithstanding, this is a lovely image.