First Merge

[Grahame Hamblin]

had a go at merging comments welcome
Grahame

[pluton]

"Merging" = HDR in this case?

[Grahame Hamblin]

Bird against clear sky then 2nd of clouds and merged
Grahame

[Akira]

Sorry for my meaningless post.  Deleted.

[ArthurDent]

What program did you use? BTW, very nice image.

[pluton]

What program did you use? BTW, very nice image.

This...very cool combination of images.  Did you consider creating a contrastier version?

[Grahame Hamblin]

will try

[Grahame Hamblin]

added some contrast

[ArthurDent]

I like both, but the second image reminds me strongly of something one might see in a 19th century book of bird paintings, which I think is an interesting look, more like a painting than a photograph.

[Erik Lund]

Arthur, you took the words out of my mouth with the book reference

[Seapy]

Graham, the 'problem' with this image, if there is one...  Is the Levels setting.  I took the liberty of taking the JPEG into Ps and checking the levels, the original image appears a bit 'flat', lacking in tonal range.  This was confirmed in Ps - Levels.

I moved the white point to the end of the image data on the histogram and added a little contrast.  No doubt further tweaking could improve the image but *technically* the image is now much better.  I feel the lower edges of the bird are too clean cut... it kind of confirms this is an image merge, I would have expected some texture along the lower edge.

This is the result of the Levels setting:

[Grahame Hamblin]

Thank you Seapy new something was wrong but did not know what.Back to practice practice learn learn.
Grahame 

[Seapy]

Every day I learn something!

The results would probably be better if the levels (and contrast), of both images had been set before merging.  I don't think the bird is quite right even now.