Australian White Cockatoo in HDR

[BruceKingston]

We have a bird sanctuary up the road from us that is inhabited mainly be White Cockatoos. This is an HDR shot of one of them taken the other day. Not necesarily of the same quality as the other bird-watchers that contribute here but I did it more as a demonstration that HDR doesn't have to look un-natural and with my CZ135 f1.8 which I absolutely refuse to take off the camera at the moment.

WhiteCockyHDR.jpg (593.47 KiB) Viewed 2073 times

Same guy, same tree, a little closer this time and cropped. This one is not HDR.

White Cocky Cropped.jpg (442.24 KiB) Viewed 2072 times

[Dr. Harout]

I have to admit I wouldn't know it as HDR-ed if not mentioned. I would think of a good exposure shot with some saturation and PP.
On the second one you "nailed" the eye perfectly at f/1.8 (as the EXIF shows).
I'm sure you have more

[KevinBarrett]

Simply wonderful! This is HDR as it should be done, very discrete. They're beautiful shots, though my favorite is the first for it's greater DoF.

[Greg Beetham]

That's what I like about the potential of the auto hdr feature, used wisely it could bring photo latitude into a similar realm as the eye can see. Great detail on the branch especially in the first one.
Greg

ps. Btw that's a Corella, but it's a Cockatoo as well I guess, I always think of the Sulpher Crested when someone says Cockatoo, but of course it isn't the only one.

[aster]

Hi Bruce,

The first is definitely the winner but I also like the second shot for capturing something very charecterisitic of these species: the walk movement, which shows in the motion blur.

Thanks for sharing,
Yildiz

[BruceKingston]

Thanks all