"And he said unto his lad, Run, find out now the arrows which I shoot. And as the lad ran, he shot an arrow beyond him."

1 Samuel 20:36

Recently I went on a photography excursion, bringing all my necessities with me to take advantage of any opportunities I would find. Finding a suitable place to set up shop, I went ahead and decided to do something I hadn't done for quite some time, and that was to manually recalibrate the focus on my lenses.

You see, over time (and a lot of picture taking) your D-SLR or mirrorless camera will eventually lose its precise focus spot (would that be a focal point?!) and need to be fine-tuned.

There is a tool that you can purchase that lets you Auto Focus Fine Tune or make Auto Focus Micro Adjustments to your lenses. They are both basically the same. Let's say you use your autofocus on an object, and instead of getting a sharp image, your focus lands either in front of your subject (front-focusing) or behind it (back-focusing)

Much like in the classic Frogger video games, just as your frog needs to land on that lily pad, so your focus needs to land on its target. Missing it by even a millimeter can completely undermine the purpose of having a high quality high resolution camera. After all, what's the point to having a full-frame sensor or a high megapixel count if your image isn't in focus when you're done!

Fortunately the majority of professional cameras allow you to make these refined adjustments so you get the image sharpness you are looking for.

You can purchase an Autofocus Calibration Target that will allow you to do just that. Simply by locking focus on the target, and then looking at the slanted ruler in the image it will let you know, by the numbers, where your focus is landing so you can compensate for it. They vary in price but you can find them at or under the 30 dollar range, and some even include a Gray Card for White Balancing, which I wrote a separate article about that here: Simple Tips For Better Pics 6: Balancing Act

You can also use an object like the top of a fence post and kind of wing it by taking a picture, and then by looking at the wood grain/texture, determine if your focus falls in front or behind your targeted point moving your micro adjustments ever so slightly till you are landing right where you want to.

It's a pretty simple process, just remember to open your aperture as wide as you can. (lowest F-stop number like f/4.5, or f/1.8 or f/2.8 depending on your lens) This will provide the most shallow depth of field so that you can really tell when things blur out. Also remember this only applies to autofocus settings, as with manually focusing you'll have to eyeball it. And, remember to use a tripod if you can as it will help.

I thought the passage from 1 Samuel above was appropriate, as Jonathan and his lad we're preparing for David's departure (albeit a sorrowful one) and much like that arrow, I have had my (autofocus) shots fly beyond my target when using my camera! And sometimes they land in front of it too. This process of adjusting the focus settings on your camera lenses will really pay huge dividends for your photography - especially if you make, well, huge pictures!

Until next time...