Burrowing Owl with Prey

[Walker Noe]

I just bought a D750 yesterday (I know, not the best bird camera, but I plan on using it mainly for astrophotography) and I wanted to take it out for a spin last evening. This is my first experience with a full frame camera, and processing full-frame images. The below image was shot after sunset. There are several family groups of burrowing owls near me (their burrows are close to the roads), so I just drive slowly looking for activity. Here, I got some. The adult had just killed this gopher and delivered it to the juvenile.

Postprocessing:
Sharpening to bird, NR to BG, removal of a couple brighter rocks in the BG, contrast/levels/exposure sliders, approx 15% crop.

Tech:
Nikon D750
Nikon 600mm f4
handheld
SS 1/800
ISO 6400
f/4

[Glenn Pure]

Magnificent pose and moment of capture here, Walker. That you've got the bird with prey is a real plus. A few things that could be revisited that would really lift this for me: first is to control the noise more effectively as I find it a bit distracting. I think there is also a slight blue/green cast to the whites eg on the rodent

[gail bisson]

The action you have captured here is wonderful. You have a high POV and it works well in this case to show the rodent. Is that really a gopher?I thought they were much bigger.
There are some significant PP issues with this image that can be rectified with proper PP.
Firstly you need to address the noise in the BG. Did you have to raise the exposure a lot? If you did, it is very difficult to save an image when you are already at a high ISO.
The color balance seems off and I would play with that as well.
This is a fine image that could really rock with some redone PP.
Congrats on the new toy !
Gail

[John Whaley]

The action you have captured here is wonderful. You have a high POV and it works well in this case to show the rodent. Is that really a gopher?I thought they were much bigger.
There are some significant PP issues with this image that can be rectified with proper PP.
Firstly you need to address the noise in the BG. Did you have to raise the exposure a lot? If you did, it is very difficult to save an image when you are already at a high ISO.
The color balance seems off and I would play with that as well.
This is a fine image that could really rock with some redone PP.
Congrats on the new toy !Gail

Agree with the advice given. A wonderful capture but unfortunately the noise is distracting and given the low light I understand using f4 but I think the image would have benefited with greater dof. With the ISO already @ 6400 fill flash would have been a good option here.

[Daniel Cadieux]

High impact image that is worth applying the offered suggestions to. Graphic, but in a non-graphic way if that makes sense.

[Alex Becker]

Good suggestions from everyone above. I agree with Daniel's assessment of graphic but non graphic, it kind of looks like a renaissance scene which is cool. Would love to see a repost addressing some of the noise and really bringing this image over the top. TFS

[Isaac Grant]

Great action, pose and prey Walker, but the processing is off. As mentioned the shot is too noisy. The bird and the background as well. Arash says that converting the RAW in Capture One works great for Nikons but I have zero experience with that. Did a quick version where I ran NR on bird and background but you will need to revisit the raw for this one.

[Walker Noe]

Thanks so much for the feedback everybody. How's this as an improvement?

176352

Edit:

now I see posterization. What is that a result of? I definitely need to step up my post processing and workflow.

[Isaac Grant]

Hey Walker. Your repost is an improvement over the original but the bird is still very noisy. Posterization is something that I do not worry too much about on these downsized files. I have plenty of TIFF's and full res jpegs that have zero posterization that when I downsize for posting here you can see some in the background. I just ignore it.