Sean J Connolly Photography

Canon 7D Soft Focus and How it Fix It

Ok so you have just bought your nice new Canon 7D, and whilst it works great you are finding that some of the shots you take using the Autofocus (AF) are not quite in focus, they look soft. So is it the camera or is it you?

First off it’s possible it could be either or both, you or the camera, so I am going to address the latter here, the camera.

Now there are two things to try to fix this issue without the need to send your camera off to the shop for recalibration.

Remove the 2 camera batteries

Open the battery compartment on your camera and take out the main camera battery, now remove the system battery. This battery is the one that is responsible for storing your user setting, dates, etc.

The system battery is located inside the battery compartment on the left, if you hold the camera upside down with the lens facing you and the battery compartment on the top, you will see the system battery holder inside to the left of the main battery compartment.

Now leave both batteries out of the camera for at least 10 minutes, this will allow the camera to completely discharge.

Now reinsert the system battery and the main battery. Hopefully your autofocus problems will be solved.

However if they are not, you may need to use the inbuilt Micro Auto Focus Adjustment functions, now whilst there are lots of different way to make change to the camera Auto Focus system. I am going to concentrate on the one that is fairly straight forward and doesn’t require you to buy anything additional to do the testing and adjustments.

This technique is known as Moire Fringing.

Moire Fringing

In order to make changes to the camera Auto Focus system using Moire Fringing there are a few things you need to have or know before your get started.

1. The Moire Fringing Chart, you can download it here

2. An available computer and enough room in front of it to be able to mount your camera on a tripod / stable surface and get the entire screen in the frame.

3. Know where to find the Auto Focus Micro Adjustment settings on your cameras

a. On the Canon 7D the settings for Auto Focus Micro Adjustment are located in the Fifth option in the third Custom Functions (CIII) Menu (Auto Focus / Drive)

i. Press the Menu button on the back of the camera

ii. Use the top scroll wheel to scroll to the Custom Functions Menu (the second to last icon on the menu list)

iii. Use the Main Scroll wheel on the back of the camera to scroll down to C Fn III then press the set button

iv. Use the Main Scroll wheel on the back of the camera to scroll to the fifth option, so number 5 is shown at the top right.

v. You should now be in the C.Fn III Autofocus/Drive AF Microadjustment screen

To find out more about Moire Fringing and some other great techniques I recommend you take a look at the video by Jared aka Fro Knows Best

Camera Testing Setup

1. Download the Moire Fringing chart, if you have not already done so, and load it up on your computer full screen, so it completely fills the monitor or as near as you can get. NOTE you cannot print the Moire Fringing chart for use as it’s the viewing it via your monitor that gives us the effect we need.

2. Attach a lens to your camera that you wish to test and adjust, we are going to make adjustments to the lenses individually so pick anyone, or just the one you think is focusing a bit soft.

3. Mount your camera on a tripod or other stable surface in front of your monitor. The camera ideally has to be a far enough away from your monitor as possible so that when you zoom your camera lens to its furthers zoom, i.e 300mm on a 300mm lens the whole of the Moire Fringing chart can be seem in the view finder. Now in practice this is not really possible, unless you happen to live in a castle or other equally long room. So in reality just make sure your camera is as far as possible from your monitor as you can get it, and then use the furthest zoom possible to fill the view finder with the Moire Fringing chart. Try to avoid fully zooming your lens to its widest point i.e if you have a 28-300mm lens try to get as close to 300mm as you can whilst keeping the chart in the view finder.

4. Please note you can use which ever mode on your camera you normally use, Full Auto, Full Manual, AV, TV, P but just make sure what ever setting you use you can clearly see the full Moire Fringing chart in the view finder. Unless you are noticing that your photos are soft at a particular F Stop (F8, etc) in that case choose either Full Manual or AV and set the camera to the required aperture you feel is soft. But again make sure you can clearly see the chart in your view finder.

5. I also recommend using either a centre focus or spot focus for testing, and focus on the centre of the chart.

Testing

Ok first off the idea behind the Moire Fringing chart is to try to get as many concentric circles in your view finder as you can.

The correctly focused image should look something like the one below

Ok so lets get started with the testing and adjustments. I am going to list the process of testing and adjustment in order to hopefully make it easier for you to understand and follow.

1. Set your camera to Manual Focus and focus manually on your monitor with the Moire Fringing chart loaded and your camera at a distance to allow for the complete chart to be visible in the view finder, you are trying to get an image similar to the one above showing the Moire Fringing chart and several concentric circles on it. Now take a photo

2. Next switch your camera to Auto Focus and set your focus point on the centre of the chart of take a photo.

3. Now go into the C.FnIII Autofocus / Drive AF Microadjustment menu (as described above) and select the Adjust by lens option (we are selecting this option as not all lenses focus the same and you can repeat the process for each lens you are having problems with), to select the option simply press the set button, then use the big scroll wheel to select the option then press the INFO button. You should now be on the following screen

4. Make sure that the Marker on the bar is set to 0, then press the set button and then use the menu button to exit the system menus. Now take a photo again making sure you are using Auto Focus and you are focusing on the centre of the chart.

5. Next go back into the screen, as shown in figure 4, and using the scroll wheel move the marker to +5, then exit the menu and take another photo. Now continue this process and each time you enter the AF Microadjustment menu change the marker in increments of 5, so start with it +5 then take a photo at +10, +15 and +20 and each time exit the menu system and take a photo. After this set of shots you should have taken 5 photos, one for each increment starting with 0 then +5, +10, +15, + 20 in order.

6. Now do the same this time starting at -5 and take a photo at the same increments, -5, -10, -15, -20.

7. You should now have a total of 10 photos on your camera, one taken using manual focus and 9 taken using Auto Focus and at each increment along the AF Microadjustment scale.

Adjustment

Now you have a set of 10 photos taken on your camera, and you have made adjustments after each shot, you should have a set of shots similar to the ones below. If you took the shots in the order as advised above starting with Manual Focus, then starting with 0 doing the + adjustment then working through the – adjustments your shots will be in the order below.

You now need to do the follow

1. Load the first shot you took your computer and view it at 100%. (the one your took using manual focus)

2. Now load the other shots in turn onto your computer and compare each shot to the one first shot you took using manual focus. You are trying to find the shot that matches as close to this one as possible, showing the same amount of concentric circle as the Manual focused shot. The shots you took will be different slightly, and this different is normally very slight but can make all the difference between soft focus and tack sharp shots.

3. If you look at the sample shot above, click on it to enlarge it, you can see that the there are two shots that are very similar to the manual focused shot and these are shots with adjustments of +5 and -5. You will notice that unlike the other shots taken at other adjustments you can clearly see the concentric circles around the centre of the shot.

4. Ok so now you have your adjustment setting you need to go back into the camera AF Microadjustment menu (shown below) and set the marker to the number you think is the closest shot to your manually focused shot.

If the adjustment number is 0, this means that your lenses is focusing fine and doesn’t need any Micro adjustment.

Conclusion

If you use more than one lens on your camera simply repeat the steps above for each lens, you can make the same adjustment for all the lenses, but I recommend doing it for each lens, as I found that my Canon kit lens needed no changes at all by my Sigma lens did, also one other word of caution do not take any more shots than the 10 shots your need for testing as this will throw out your order and you won’t know which shot is done at which setting.

One final thought if you find that doing the above does not result in sharper images, you should firstly try to work on your camera holding technique or try tour camera using the timer and a tripod, but if this fails you may need to send your camera off to Canon for recalibration. However thankfully I was able to solve my own soft focus issues using the above technique.

Lighting

As every good photographer will know the word photography actually means “writing with light” and this means that one of the most important things you can get right in order to get a great photograph is the lighting.

For an excellent video guide please check out this great series of tutorials by the Better Photos Academy

Lighting comes from two main sources ambient and artificial, and being able to control your lighting is the key to your photos being great rather than good.

Ambient Light
This is very simple to understand but difficult to master, ambient light is using the light from available light sources that occur naturally in your environment, this can be light from street lighting, light from the sun, the moon or anything else that is around that you do not have direct control over.
The simple fact that your do not have direct control over ambient light means that you have to use otherways to bring some form of control to the lighting.
Reflector

Multi Purpose Reflector

The most common way to control ambient light is with a reflector / diffuser, this small or large piece of kit allows you to reflect the light to exactly where you want to, and some reflectors are multi purpose and have an in built diffuser which allows you to scatter the light more evenly across your subject.

A multi purpose reflector works usually in one of the following ways

Directly reflects the light to where you want it, normally done using the silver side.
Reflects the light but softens its colour, normally done using the white side.
Reflect the slight and adds a gold / yellow tinge to it, normally done with the gold side
Diffuses the light by softening it, normally done by using the internal part
Remove light from your subject by absorbing it, normally done with the black side.

Without / With Reflector

As you can see from the above portrait sample shot the image on the left is dark in the front, whilst the image on the right has a nice even lighting

Now although a reflector is the most common tool used to control ambient lighting, you can pretty much use anything you like to get the desired effect, even closing curtains is a way to control ambient light in fact you can just play around with everday objects to give you the right lighting.

In Camera
Althought this may sound obvious the best way to play around with ambient or available light is to change the camera setting, this may mean using a smaller or larger aperture or changing the shutter speed, by adjusting in camera setting you can also control directly the ambient light entering the camera to get the desired effect.
The simple rule of thumb is

Slower shutter speed will let more light in / Faster shutter speed will let less light in
Smaller aperture number = wider aperture which lets more light in
Higher aperture number = smaller aperture which lets less light in
Hgher ISO number will give lighter photos, but also add noise to your shots.

Note when shooting at slow shutter speeds remember to put your camera on a stable platform or tripod

Changing Shutter Speed – Long Exposure

As you can see in the example above by using a slower shutter speed the ambient light can be made to look really cool. So remember that the only limit is your imagination so go nuts.

Artificial Light

When time calls for it and the ambient or available light is insufficient for your needs there are two main choices when it comes to lighting your subject, flash / strobes and continuous lighting.

Flash / Strobes
A flash / strobes is the common term for a portable unit that provides light directly in connection with your camera shutter, these come in all shapes and sizes but have common features and functions which I am going to talk about here.

Ok I will start by giving you an over view of the most common function on modern flash units, I will start at the bottom left of the diagram and work clockwise.
On / Off Switch
This switch is used to turn on or off the flash unit, when switch on the flash will normally make a high pitched sound until it is ready to fire.
Flash Ready / Test
This button has two purposes the first is it will light up when the flash unit is ready for use, the second is that when it is lit up it can be pressed in order to test fire the flash.
Flash Zoom (optional)
This button is used when the flash in in manual mode to zoom or move the flash head inside the flash, this allows the flash to cover either a narrower area or a wider area.

Note Not all flash units are zoom units and have this function, also this option will be controlled by the flash when not in manual mode.
Mode
This is used to switch the flash mode, normally used to select between ETTL (auto) and manual modes.
F/Stop
This button is sometime labelled power and allows you to control the output level of the flash when in manual mode, most units support anything from full power to 1/16 of full power, someother units can step down a bit further to reduce the power up to 1/32 of full power.
Note – the measurement is a percentage of the full output, 1/1 being full power.
ISO (optional)
This allow the light sensitivity of the flash to be change as needed
Alert (optional)
This allows the noise and alerts on the flash to be alerted.
Back light
This turns on and off the flash back light, this is only available on flash units with an LCD screen.
ETTL – Evaluatitive Through The Lens

This indicates that the flash is operating is full auto mode and directly in sync with the camera, this mode is only supported by the flash being connected as follows.

On the camera Hot Shoe connector
Tethered to the Hot Shoe connector via a cord
Connected to the camera via a wireless trigger that supports ETTL.

Note – ETTL simply means that any adjustments made to the camera will be automatically done tot he flash, such as focal length, etc.
Slave / Master Switch (optional)

This changes the flash from being either the main flash unit in the set to the slave unit, simply put if your flash has this option it can be remotely fired by other flash units, there will be a infrared sensor on yoru flash either the side or front that must be in the line of sight of other units. When the other flash unit fires this unit will also fire.
The above is only a guide to the flash units, most work in the same way, but will be laid out differently, but in essence the principles are the same for all.

Ok that concludes the basic workings of your flash, the other things to look for in your flash and to know about is as follows.

Guide Number – this is the effect distance your flash can cover when your camera ISO is set to 100, normally expressed in feet ie 48 feet.

Gels – these are attached to give the flash a colour light rather than the typical white light, if you look at reflector photo above you can see it is back lit in blue, this is done using a gel.

Flash Gels

Continuous Lighting

This is the form of lighting that is always on, it can come from a variety of sources, it is something to play around with and use what ever you have around to light your subject, some of the more common continuous light sources are

Purpose built continuous lights, unlike stobes these do not cycle with your camera.
torch
Anything else you like that gives off light.

Playing around with lighting

The shot above shows use of other forms of continuous lighting, again it is only limited by your imagination.

DSLR Controls – Back / Rear Controls

I must start first off by saying that the shots in this post are of my Canon 7D and whilst most Canon cameras all have the same layout, Nikons do not. This does not really make a lot of difference as the operation of most DSLR cameras are the same, and whilst the buttons may not be in the same place, they do operate in the same or similar way.
Also another important note is that you can program the buttons on most DSLR to do different functions as you prefer, the diagrams and descriptions although are correct for the functions may not operate the same as your camera as these layouts are the default layouts.

The way this will work is I will cover each side of the camera in turn, Back, Front ,Top and left. I am not going to mention stupid things like where the batteries go, or how to attach a strap but the more necessary things as well as somethings that when I first started I just could not figure out. Also I have changed the names slightly to help you make more sense of things and not be too technical.

Back of DSLR

Back / Rear of Canon 7D

The rear of most DSLR consist of a large screen and to the side the main image selector wheel. I will start at the bottom left of the picture and work clockwise, ok here goes

Playback / Live View Screen
The large screen on the back of your DSLR serves two purposes. One is very simply it allows you to view shots you have taken after you press the Playback button, and by using the Adjust / Scroll wheel you can view your shots and then zoom in or out using the Zoom in or Zoom Out buttons on the right above the big wheel.
Note when you zoom into an photo and view it on the screen you can use the View Joystick to move around the image.
The other use for this screen and hence why I have named it the Live View Screen is that when you are taking photos with your camera it is possible to see a variety of different things on this screen and not just what you are taking a photo of. These include a Quick Menu, a Camera Level, Shot histogram and information and of course Live View (basically what the camera sees). Most of these are accessed by using the Info button. (more on this later)
How to Access to Live View on DSLR
HUGE note to get Live View to work on the LCD screen you actually press the Start / Stop button during shooting mode, just make sure the little outer ring around the Start / Stop is pointing at the white camera.
If Live view fails to operate you need to enable it as follows

Press the System Menu Button
Use the Little Wheel on the top of the camera and scroll to menu option 4
Use the big wheel to select live view
Press the Set / Enter button then select enable to activate live view, press the Set / Enter button.
Press the System Menu button to come out of the system menu.

Live view is now working

Delete
Does exactly what it says on the tin, deletes your photos.
Playback
Go on guess, yes it shows you photos you have taken on the big Live View screen, not quite 3D IMAX but at least you know what you shot.

Info /Level / Quick Menu

When in shooting mode this button allows you to do 1 of 4 things

On first press you see the information about the shot your are taking, such as colour temp, white balance as well as how much space you have on your card and how many shots you can take.
On pressing again you get a camera level indicator, showing if the camera is level or not, a solid green line indicates your camera is level (note this is not available on all DSLR’s)
On a third press you get the Quick menu, a quick over view of your current settings such as Aperture and shutter speed. (Note this is a view only option and in order to make changes you need to use the Quick Menu button)
On a fourth press you turn off the back LCD screen all together.

When in playback mode this button gives your either on screen info about the shot or pressed again gives you more detailed shot information.

Picture Style

This button allows you to change how your photo will turn out whether you are shooting a landscape, portait or want to change the sharpness.

System Menu

This is the main menu button on your camera and gets you into the main system menu, where you can change all sorts of good things and some not so good things.

Quick Menu

This button gives you access to the quick menu, where you can quickly change many camera settings. To scroll around the screen use the Qucik Menu / View Joystick and then use the main dial or Adjust / scroll wheel to make changes.
Instant Raw + Jpeg

This is a kinda cool button it allows you to quickly set you camera to take both a RAW and Jpeg photo at the same time, can save you alot of time. Although my advice is to always shoot in RAW.

Viewfinder

D’oH this shows you what you are taking a photo of, that is unless you are using the Live View Mode.

Word of caution if you are using Mirror Lock after your shot you will not be able to see through the View Finder

Still / Video Recording (outer ring)

The little outer ring switch to the right of the view finder is the selector to set the camera to either shoot still photographs or record HD video, white for photos red for video.

Video Record Start / Stop / Live View

The button marked start /stop to the right of the view finder is the button that does one of two things.

If the camera is set to record video it starts and stop the video
If the camera is set to take still photographs this button shows / turns on Live View on the LCD screen. (see note above about how to enable live view)

Auto Focus Button
This button starts the camera focussing, it does not take a shot it simply gets the camera in focus ready to take a photo. Great for use if you are taking shots of things that will move.

AE Lock Button / Zoom In

This button allows you to lock the exposure for a given shot, simply press the button and the green light in the viewfinder will show to show you exposure is locked, when you take a photo it will be taken with this exposure setting.
This button also acts as a zoom in or magnify button during playback.

Focus Mode / Zoom Out

This button lets you select the area to focus on when used in conjunction with the Main Dial on top of the camera. Simply press the Focus Mode button them use the Main Dial to select the area to focus using the view finder.
This button also lets you change the focus mode and lets you scroll through the active modes on your cameras to change focus mode.
How to select Focus Mode and Focus Point on DSLR

Press the Focus Mode / Zoom Out button
Look through the view finder and press the Multi Function / Manual Focus Select button on top of the camera (next to the shutter release), for each press of this button you will see the focus point and mode change in the viewfinder. Just keep pressing it until you see the desired Focus Point / Mode in the view finder.
Once you find the desired mode, simply use the Main Dial on top of the camera to move the point to where you want to focus.

Quick Menu / View Joystick

When in quick menu after press the Quick Menu button this joystick allows you to select the option you wish to adjust.
Whilst in playback this joystick allows you to navigate around a photograph after pressing the Zoom In button.
This joystick can also be set to allow you to select a focus point on the screen.
Set / Enter

This is kinda like the save button, pressing it selects menu options.

Adjust / Scroll Wheel

This is the companion to the main dial, it allows you to change camera settings, as well as being used to scroll through photos during playback.

Activity light

This shows when the camera is doing something, such as writing to the card, cleaning the sensor, etc.
Wheel Function Lock

This switch when pushed to the right stops you from accidently making camera setting changes.

NOTE the quick menu adjustment and on screen options still work with this in the Lock position, the main purpose of this switch is during shooting as it stops you making adjustments via the top LCD screen.
Light Sensor

There is a small light sensor just to the left of the big adjust / scroll wheel this is used by the camera for taking light readings. It is mainly used during exposure setting in non manual modes and in auto mode it also sets the LCD screen brightness.

Final Note

Most of the camera buttons have a dual function and in order to make adjustments you need to use either the rear dial or the top dial depending on what you want to change.

Canon 7D Soft Focus and How it Fix It

Lighting

DSLR Controls – Back / Rear Controls

Notable Posts

Recent Posts

Archives