These cormorants in the trees at the fabulous Circle B Bar Reserve near Lakeland, FL are focused by using a magnified live view image of the birds in the trees, and manually focusing on them. I shot with live view still active to eliminate mirror vibrations and shutter vibrations. This technique is the best way I know to shoot a sharp image of this scene. Gerlach’s Focusing Tactics as of March 2018 Since I shoot more than 200,000 images each year, and constantly strive to f

I have largely abandoned stopping the lens down to cover the depth of field for the several reasons listed below: Stopping the lens down to f/16 and f/22 produces an overall less sharp image due to the optical effects of diffraction. Stopping the lens down usually doesn’t cover the depth of field all that well anyway. Only where the lens is focused is it truly sharp. All other distances are subject to “acceptable focus,” and that isn’t exactly sharp focus. Stopping down the