Click image to enlarge.

In preparation for my Alaska Adventure digital photo workshop, listed on my 2014 Workshops page, I'm designation this week on my blog as Alaska Photo Workshop Week. Each day I will post a few images, taken on my previous adventures, along with some tips.

Hal Schmitt, my friend and lead instructor at Light Photographic Workshops, and I are co-leading this adventure. We will help you make and process wonderful images in Lightroom and Photoshop - and have a ton of fun. We will also teach you the magic of plug-ins, which are listed on my Plugs-ins page.

Day 3: Get the Eye in Focus

Check out the eyes of these birds in flight. They are sharp, as are the eyes of the bald eagles in my previous posts in this series.

In wildlife photography, if they eyes are not sharp and well lit, I feel as though I've missed the shot. Of course, there are exceptions to that philosophy, but that is my general feeling.

Here's what I do to get the eyes in focus:
• Set my Canon 5D Mark III camera on the AI servo mode, which tracks the subject right up to the moment of exposure.
• As a general rule, set a shutter speed of at least 1/1000th of second. I sometimes shoot at a slightly slower shutter speed to get a bit of motion/blur on the bird's wingtips.
• Stop down two stops from the minimum aperture, which gives me more depth of field than if I were shooting wide open.
• Choose the fastest frame rate.
• Set my focus point on the subject, so that the subject, and not the background is in focus.
• Take lots of shots :-)

I hope to see you here on my blog tomorrow - and Hal and I hope to see you in Alaska.

Explore the light,
Rick

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