Looks to me like the image is under exposed, which leads to more noise. Also, I would increase the ISO to help increase shutter speed and exposure. It's a tough battle to balance noise and exposure in dark situations, but it sure helps to get all the exposure you can in camera and not need to increase in post. Good looking bird. Love to crop in some more so I could get a little better look at him.
There are several issues here. First, the camera's LCD screen is only good for composition. The histogram is for exposure. Did you bring up exposure in processing? That can give noise at any ISO, depending on how far you brought it up, but more so at higher ISO.
In addition to noise, nothing looks sharp here. 1/125 is a slow shutter speed for 300 mm, unless you are super-steady with the lens. Other issues not related to noise are that the contrast is low and the color is heavily biased toward green.
You don't say what the camera was, but were you able to select one focus sensor and get it on the subject at the moment of exposure? AI servo is best if the subject is moving, but One Shot can work if the subject stays in the same focal plane or you are fast. Bu don't be so fast that you shoot while the IS is kicking in -- that will blur things.
The original was pretty dark, so i did bring up the exposure.
Thank you for the tips, i am going to that lace again prettu soon and i will try to retake it with the tips in mind ;)
The exposure is way dark. You were shooting in shutter priority mode so to increase the exposure you may use 'exposure compensation'. I believe you will find 'exposure compensation' in the Index of your manual.
ISO 100 was too low to allow a suitable shutter speed. I suggest, in similar situations, use ISO 400, or higher.
With a scene like that, which looks to be in the shade or heavy clouds, the best exposure is often 1 or even 2 stops overexposed. If you haven't blown out highlights you'll minimize noise by bringing the exposure down in processing. Bracketing exposures can be helpful as you're learning.
Arthur Morris' blog and books have a ton of information about exposure.
Thank you all for the tips, went back this morning to try to retake the picture, but without succes (some fishermen where there, so no birds :( )
As soon as i can take it again ill let you know the results
Waterbird (and noise problem)
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