Black shouldered Kite in flight

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

7D
700mm
1/6400
f/5.6
ISO 400
Hand held
The IQ of 7D sometimes plays tricks as it can get noisy at even low ISOs. NR applied only to the sky.

[Diane Miller]

This is a gorgeous pose! The sky is beautiful, but as you said, the noise under the wings could be better. I don't remember how you are processing, but I've found that with ACR/LR that increasing the Exposure slider causes a little less noise than bringing up the Shadows slider. Finding the right balance is important.

And of course exposing to the right as much as possible when you shoot will minimize that noise as you won't have to increase exposure in those areas as much. It can be tricky not to overdo the highlights, but you can reduce them to a large extent with the Highlights slider in LR/ACR.

Noise reduction keeps getting better in software, too. I like Nik's Dfine, as it will often leave surprisingly good detail in things like feathers while reducing noise in smooth areas.

A bird against a sunny sky is a big challenge!

[Warren Spreng]

What a cool shot, love the eye! That would be a tough one to get just the right exposure to bring out the structure underneath the wing and not blow out the white!