Selfie Saturday 34 and Autofocus Calibration
I was too busy this week to do a proper self-portrait but I did shoot a few. I shot a maternity shot, however after some thinking, I decided it was a bit too revealing to post here. So I only had a few arm’s length left from when I was trying out my new reflector.
But…. I do have something super exciting to tell you today, in addition to the usual Selfie Saturdays.
I FINALLY CALIBRATED MY LENS’ AUTOFOCUS!!!
If you don’t know how HUGE this is, then you really gotta read up below! If you have already done the calibration yourself, then I bow to you, because it took me a year or so to get off my butt and do it, even though I was sick and tired of softly focused photos.
So first, selfies for this week:
Now onto the fun and useful stuff!
Tell me if this sounds familiar:
For years, I’ve been photographing and been somewhat disappointed with the quality of about 80% of the photos. My photos were almost always soft-looking. Yes after some sharpening in Photoshop and resizing, noone would really call them out of focus, but SOOC I never felt like my focus was always spot on.
It was even worse when my husband took photos- 90% of his were out of focus and 10% had soft focus.
At first I thought it was the camera ( Rebel at the time), and yes after switching to 5D, the quality did improve but the focus was still softer than I liked. Then I assumed it was because of the lenses I was using: my favorite 50mm isn’t exactly expensive or the best quality lens, even though it produces superb images.
After the most recent shoot, I started getting mad. I mean, you pay $3000 for the camera body, you buy what should be decent lenses, and how come some photographers’ shots are just that much sharper. I can’t blame it on experience because I’ve been photographing for with a DSLR for 5 years and I know how to focus properly, damn it!
So I don’t know what exactly brought me to it, but I found out that SOME LENSES HAVE TO BE CALIBRATED TO THE CAMERA IN ORDER TO HAVE THE PERFECT AUTOFOCUS!
As in, lenses out of the box will rarely perform to their full potential. Most of them focus on the front or the back, but rarely on the item you actually want them to focus.
That made sense to me: my 50mm gave us consistently soft focus. And I literally had to FIGHT to get super sharp focus. My other lens did a bit better, but I still wasn’t happy with it.
So I quickly found the appropriate setting in my camera’s menu- most DSLRs have it ( MENU -> AUTOFOCUS CALIBRATION or AUTOFOCUS TUNE UP ( that’s what most cameras call it) and then Calibrate by lens). Then it lets you adjust the autofocus from -20 (forward focus) all the way to +20 (backward focus).
I found a few tutorials on what technique to use to find the right focus, most of which had to do with positioning the camera at a 45 degree angle to some sort of ruler and adjusting it from there.
I tried and tried and tried it. I used rulers, printed out thermometer images, specific calibration charts – nothing seemed to give me consistent results. So I decided to simply experiment on what I shoot most- a person. I sat my husband in front of the white wall and told him to sit still. The I proceeded to take pictures of him focusing on the eye and changing the calibration by 1 point each time. Even looking at the results in the viewfinder, one could tell that at 0 (the natural setting) the focus was always on the nose ( not on the eye like the focus point showed me). It didn’t matter how many times the red spot blinked over his eye, the focus was almost always on the nose, and when it was on the eye, it wasn’t incredibly sharp. At +8 things started improving and at +10 (which where I stopped), I was shocked to see that the eye was finally sharper than I ever remember any photograph being.
I tried shooting moving objects – it was still perfect. It focused exactly where I intended it to focus.
So apparently my 50mm’s autofocus was too far forward, so regardless of where I think I am focusing, it would always focus just a bit up front (the nose).
I handed the camera over to hubby to test it out since we’ve always thought he’s just really bad at focusing. He took six shots. EVERY SINGLE PHOTO IN FOCUS! It was a miracle! I couldn’t believe it!
I decided to fine tune it further and arrived at +11 or +12 as the sweet spot.
Here’s a visual for you guys:
In these images I was focusing on the SAME spot each time – the front ball. The little red “focus dot” peeped and blinked in the same spot on every single shot. And yet look at how different the results are.
At -10, the focus was on the rim of the bowl
At +10, it was on the front ball but a bit too soft
At +11, it was crystal clear and sharp- THE PERFECT SPOT
At +15, i went a bit too far ( the focus is now shifting backwards towards the 2nd ball)
I cannot tell you how incredibly excited and relieved I am that my photos are now properly focused. The few shots I took since then are a joy to work on! I cannot wait to do a few actual shoots and enjoy the results!
I gotta tell you, if you’re seeing even a bit of a soft focus, take the time to deal with it. It’ll save you hours of frustration and wasted effort. Don’t wait years like I did.
NOW LINK UP
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Tags: autofocus, autofocus calibration, self portrait, selfie saturday, selfie saturday link up
wow I had no idea about this! Thanks for the tip… Definitely gonna try it. I also use a rebel and have a 50mm that sometimes produces “too soft” photos.
Xo dana
I use a 5D now not a Rebel but Rebel was definitely much softer. Not sure if it has that option for lens calibration.
Wow, I’ve never heard of lens calibration! Hmmm… were these two selfies taken after the calibration?! They don’t look sharp to me…
These were taken after calibration but the focus wasn’t the point here. They were shot at arms length so obviously I had no idea where the camera was focusing. You’d only see the difference if you’re actually looking in the viewfinder and see where you’re focusing.
And if you look carefully I’m pretty sure both times it’s focused on 1 eye, the rest is out of focus because of the wide aperture.
Hope that makes sense.
Can’t wait to see your new shots! I’m going to try to calibrate my lens too.))
No offense, mama!
Oh wow!!!! I have to do that too
Let me know how it works for you!
Awesome tips Elena- I do hope you post some new maternity pics for Selfies- although your eyes here are incredible!
I post most of maternity shots on my personal blog , but to be honest I haven’t taken many artistic ones, that’s why I haven’t posted any here. The most recent ones are of the silhouette but nude so I didn’t think it was appropriate to post lol
Too bad,my camera don’t have this option
5D,a tripod and a remote are on my wish-list!
By the way,how can i put your link of selfie saturdays on my blog? Sorry,I don’t know much of this…
Well, you take the code off the button in the post and put it into the HTML of your post or your sidebar. Congrats on the blog btw! I’ll definitely be subscribing!
Yeah,I get it!!!
Thank you so much Elena!
Thanks for this post!
I wish it was all perfect
Did you calibrate by the center point?
I noticed that on some of my lens some focus points do better job than others. i.e. my 28mm will be razor sharp with the center point, but the top one will be way off…
Yes they recommend you go by center point. I think once you calibrate the lens, the focus will be good on all points. But next time I’ll pay attention to the focus using different AF points
I have wanted to pay and get my lenses calibrated for some time now. I just don’t feel like paying for it. IT does sound like from you and everyone I hear from though that it is SO worth it as you have said. I will def. have to look into that!!
No way! Is it like that for Nikons too? Wow…
Linking up with my flickr instead of my blog this week.
Elena, one of the reasons I upgraded (a year ago) to the 5DII was the micro-calibration feature. And I’ve been too chicken to even try! You made this look soooo easy. I went ahead and messed around with my 50mm the day after I read this. Amazing the difference! And honestly, I just got my camera back from repair at Canon because the focus had gotten so intolerable. Even freshly back from the factory micro-calibrating made an incredible difference. Thanks so much for the gentle push!
Oh well, I am glad it gave you a push. I myself have procrastinated immensely on something as important as that!
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Thanks for this info. I have been noticing that ever since I upgraded my camera, my photos are not as tack sharp as they use to be. I just found a Nikon tutorial for autofocus calibration, so I think I am going to need to do this!
Wow, i can’t wait to check my camera out and do this!!
so if i switch lenses do i need to do it to each time i switch my lenses? Like if I am using my 50 and i switch to be 80 when i switch back to my 50 will i need to calibrate again?
No, you don’t have to re-do it when you switch lenses. Once you’ve calibrated all your lenses, it remembers and automatically adjusts depending on the lens you are using.
Elena, I had no idea about that! I have 35mm lens so I guess, the number will be different. I’m gonna try it out and messa around! Thanks for sharing the info.
btw, you look so cute pregnant. if I didn’t know I would say your’re in the middle of your second trimester or even much earlier into pregnancy. I am in my second and my belly is bigger that yours
Hugs
Wow. Thanks for the tip. I have a Nikon and a Panasonic compact DSLR, but I’m definitely going to look for the lens focus calibration setting you mentioned. I hope it makes a world of difference like your Canon. I have the same issue with my BF. I don’t know what it is, but his focus is usually waaayyy off. Hopefully this helps.