I’ve been asked a few times how I shoot and edit my wildlife images. I want to make a quick disclaimer. I LOVE photoshop! It is by far the best tool you can have in your digital darkroom. When editing needs done, nothing compares and nothing comes even close.

Now that I’ve said that, not every picture I take gets a lot of treatment. In fact, when it comes to my wildlife images very little, if anything, is done to them.,I know what you are thinking: “Joe, you take such good images they don’t need edited, right?” Ha! I just don’t do it because what I want out of the picture is simple. I want to record and preserve what I am seeing. I want to bring attention to the animal by capturing it in a natural environment without disturbing it. I shoot it as simple as possible and let the camera do the leg work. So it all starts in the camera and here is how I do it.

I am always in Aperture Priority. Simple as that, I always am. I want to control the background because I feel that by doing that I can tell the story I want to tell. I use a pretty decent camera, so I have the luxury of using auto iso and can rely on it to give me good results at higher iso settings. By doing that, I am able to keep my shutter speed from dropping too low and can capture the peak of action when needed. Do I always use auto iso? Absolutely not, but when I’m worried about action I sure do. I would love to be able to stay at iso 200 all the time to keep the quality the best. But it isn’t always feasible for me to do so, therefore I don’t. I will use exposure compensation when I need to dial in a little more or less light.

My camera has about a billion autofocus points on it that will try to focus on whatever. I don’t use it. I use the lowest possible single point system. I do that because the more points you are using. the slower the autofocus. I want my focus to be as fast as possible so I get the shot. I keep it in the center and if needed I’ll crop later. Critters don’t stand around and pose for you so you have to be ready when they are. If you are using a mid-range SLR, chances are you have the option of release or focus priority, or sometimes both. My advice is to use release, because why in the world would you want the camera to decide when you can take the picture? If it isn’t focused well, it is my fault and I’ll go on living. But I don’t want to miss a shot because the camera said no. Oh, and matrix metering: you should probably stay in that 95 percent of the time because it works.

That is all there is to my camera. Settings are great and all, but you really need to just get out and practice. Everyone will use something a little different and lots of things work well. If you know your camera and put in the time you will get good shots. There is no easy road to it and like anything you will have to practice all the time.

When I get back home my workflow on the computer is even easier! I use Adobe Lightroom to categorize my images and do all the little things. I shoot in RAW because it gives me the most slack for when I screw up. I will tell you now, I do that a LOT. But shooting in RAW will give you enough room for adjustment so you can fix most little things easily enough. Here is what I do to a picture in Lightroom:

• Adjust the WB if needed. The camera is great at figuring it out but doesn’t always nail it.
• I jump all the way down to profile and select what I like. Since I shoot in RAW, it doesn’t apply one in camera.
• I go back up and do a lens correction to fix distortion, aberration, and vignetting.
• Apply noise reduction and sharpening where needed.
• Adjust exposure if needed.

I know that is a bit of a weird order but it works for me. But using Lightroom means I can work in any order without making permanent adjustments to my photos. So it doesn’t matter what order you go in, it all works the same. And as you can see, I’m not really doing anything other than some exposure adjustments if I mess up. Everything else I’m doing is because I shoot in RAW and it isn’t recording that stuff for me. When you shoot in JPG you are letting the camera do it for you, and once it is done it is done. There is no easy way to go back and make those simple corrections. It is more work on my end without the JPG but like I said before, I do screw up. I need that safety net because I’m not perfect. But you don’t have to be to take great images. Just experiment every chance you get and do what works for you. But don’t stop exploring ideas and options. Nothing is set in stone.