Kingfisher on a fence post

[batch]

This is my first serious attempted at trying to merge two photos together. I have added the kingfisher onto the fence post. I would just like to be critiqued on the merge and what i should look out for when doing this type of thing. Thanks for looking.



Camera: Canon EOS 400D Digital
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/800)
Aperture: f/3.5
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0 EV

[Murtasma]

I think you did a really nice job here. It would be nice if the feet of the bird where showing but depending on your source material this may not have been easily done. Lighting on the bird looks about correct for the type of light going on in the scene in general.

[Exidor]

Nice compositing job in general but there are two things that give it away for me. The main one is the angle of the light on the kingfisher vs the rest of the scene - in the background, the light is coming in left to right but the kingfisher's right side is lit up as if the light was going the other way. The other thing I noticed was that the shadow between the post and the kingfisher looks a little artificial, like it's been painted in. This is less obvious and I probably wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't been looking for things to nitpick.

[batch]

Thanks Murtasma
Exidor, you are right in what you said about the shadows, that's why it is cropped like it is to try to take out the shadows. And between the post and bird i did that to try to blend the two together. Thanks for the critque