A method for use in seismic exploration, comprising: accessing a set of seismic data representative of a seismic survey, the seismic survey including imparting seismic signals with one or more seismic sources in a subterranean geological formation and receiving propagated reflections by a receiver array , and a subsurface attribute model of the subterranean geological formation; performing a wavefield extrapolation on the seismic data in the subsurface attribute model yielding a representation of the receiver side wavefield and the source side wavefield; applying a time-shift extended imaging condition to the extrapolated wavefields, generating an image value at each of a range of time lags between the extrapolated source and receiver wavefields; forming shot-indexed, time shift gathers , each gather including traces formed for each image pixel of the subsurface attribute model from the conditioned extrapolated wavefields; the method being characterized in that it further comprises the steps of: adaptively focusing the gathers using a processor , the adaptive focusing comprising determining for each trace in the gather an amount of time shift to apply to yield a zero time lag for that trace and applying the determined time shift to each respective trace; stacking the adaptively focused gathers using the processor ; and imaging the subterranean geological formation from the stacked, adaptively focused gathers using the processor . accessing a set of seismic data representative of a seismic survey, the seismic survey including imparting seismic signals with one or more seismic sources in a subterranean geological formation and receiving propagated reflections by a receiver array , and a subsurface attribute model of the subterranean geological formation; performing a wavefield extrapolation on the seismic data in the subsurface attribute model yielding a representation of the receiver side wavefield and the source side wavefield; applying a time-shift extended imaging condition to the extrapolated wavefields, generating an image value at each of a range of time lags between the extrapolated source and receiver wavefields; forming shot-indexed, time shift gathers , each gather including traces formed for each image pixel of the subsurface attribute model from the conditioned extrapolated wavefields; the method being characterized in that it further comprises the steps of: adaptively focusing the gathers using a processor , the adaptive focusing comprising determining for each trace in the gather an amount of time shift to apply to yield a zero time lag for that trace and applying the determined time shift to each respective trace; stacking the adaptively focused gathers using the processor ; and imaging the subterranean geological formation from the stacked, adaptively focused gathers using the processor . adaptively focusing the gathers using a processor , the adaptive focusing comprising determining for each trace in the gather an amount of time shift to apply to yield a zero time lag for that trace and applying the determined time shift to each respective trace; stacking the adaptively focused gathers using the processor ; and imaging the subterranean geological formation from the stacked, adaptively focused gathers using the processor . <EOS>