In Flight

[Skyline]

Got this one last night just as light was turning for the worse.
I'm not a bird person at all but I did get told once to practice on seagulls if I have access (which I do).

I know it's a gull, but don't know what kind?

[Donald]

It's a ..... very nice gull! I should know and my partner would be horrified that I don't.

That is a good image. It's different - creatively and positively so. I think it is very impressive. Couldn't see any EXIF info. What are the details?

[Skyline]

All here Donald.... http://www.flickr.com/photos/5246926...n/photostream/

I tried a few at a higher iso but it was about 4.30 and the light was bad. Even with a high iso they were to dark.
I was a little unsure at first and I know it's not razor sharp, but I really like the blur in the wing. I think the flash helped get something a little different.

[Skyline]

ps... jpeg as my cs5 wont had the canon 550d raw

[Reynold Mainse]

A lot of nice energy in this image. I think you made the most of the light you were given and the flash froze the birds body nicely.

[lenelg]

ps... jpeg as my cs5 wont handle the canon 550d raw

Skyline,
You need the latest version of Adobe DNG Converter, a free download which will convert almost any proprietary RAW file format into DNG, a standard raw format which your CS can open. Adobe does a good job of updating DNG Converter as new versions of RAW appear.. No need to be limited to JPEG!

/Lennart Elg

[Bobobird]

Very nice gull shot - creative.

ps... jpeg as my cs5 wont had the canon 550d raw

Have you tried updating to ACR 6.5?

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloa...jsp?ftpID=5260

Supported cameras -
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/extend.html

The 550D was added in version 6 I think. I am also on the 550D and RAW opened fine in PS5/12.1.

Regarding high ISO - you can safely go up to 1600 on 550D if your exposure is correct or slightly to the right. If I know that higher then 200 will be needed, the switch is not to 400 or 800, it is to 1600. Reason? The noise is cleaner and sharpens up very nicely. Quite a few of my pics posted here are either 200 or 1600, very few at 400 or 800. Try it.

This one for example was shot at 1600 1/2000.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-_...10607_8859.jpg

[Tringa]

A great shot IMO. Shots where every feather is pin sharp are also good, but this shows very well what birds do - they fly. I can't add anymore on the editing front.

It is a black headed gull, by the way.

Dave

[photolessons]

That really is a beautiful shot! I love the effect on the wings. They are not simply blurred from a long exposure, but seem to have some depth-of-field blurring going on too...

Anyways, it really shows off some skill to capture that.

[Skyline]

Thanks for all the comments

and thanks Lennart and Bobo for the raw help.