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HowFocusWorks
By Todd Vorenkamp | 1 year ago
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ox.)
Focus
A lens is an optical device that consists of a curved material that allows light to pass
through it. Depending on the design, a camera lens, either built into the camera or
attached and interchangeable, consists of one or more elements that both diverge
and converge light to focus it onto the photosensitive surface and re-assemble the
light reecting from the scene that has passed through the optics, resulting in an
image. You might see lens specications on the B&H Photo website that mention
elements and groups. Each individual piece of glass is an element and one or
more elements are designated into groups inside the camera.
Why do we need to bend the light to create an image? Well, we do not truly need to
bend the light at all. The issue is that the lm, sensor, or back wall of your eyeball is
usually much smaller than the view we are trying to capture. Therefore, we need to
bend the light to reduce the size of the image. How else would you get an entire
mountain or building to t onto a camera sensor without bending the light?
Not only does the lens bend the light, it also slows it down. The speed of light
changes when it passes through translucent materials. So, light is bending and
slowing as it enters and exits a lens (depending on the design of the lens). The
camera lenss job is to direct that light onto the lm or sensor.
Before we go too crazy here, let me issue a disclaimer stating that there are many
things one can learn about the behavior of light and the physics of lenses. I will never
pretend to have more than a casual understanding of the topic, and my college
physics grades would indicate that you might want to forget what you just read and
are about to read but, for the purposes of this article, I am going to try to keep this
basic and clear so that we can get to the subject at handfocus. If you want to dig
deeper, by all means, indulge yourself. Optics and light are super cool and
fascinating, but I need to keep this relevant to the photographer. Doctoral-level
knowledge of this topic is in no way guaranteed to make you a better photographer.
As anyone who has used a magnifying glass to try to burn holes in paper or leaves
can attest to, there is a direct correlation between the convergence of light and
distance from the object onto which you are trying to project that light. When you try
to focus the light of the sun into a tiny spot to start a ame with a lens, you are
focusing the light from a single light source. The camera, as well as your eye, is
focusing the light from not only potentially many light sources, but an innite number
of light rays that are reecting from objects in the scene. Moving the lens closer or
farther from the sensor or lm is how the camera and lens work to channel the light
to recreate the image clearly.
If you could not adjust the focus of the camera and lens, you would have to move
physically closer or further from the objectjust like you did with your magnifying
glass and the sun. Luckily for us, most cameras do the moving for us.
Let us get theoretical one more time to help cement this information. You are
fundamentally against seles and are taking a portrait of a friend so that they dont
have to take their own picture. Now, lets look closely at our subject. Really closely
the tip of an eyelash. That eyelash tip is reecting light from a light source (sun,
strobe, light bulb, etc) in all directions, not just back at the camera. Reected light
from that eyelash is entering the cameras lens at dierent angles because it is
reecting at a nearly innite number of angles. The lenss job is to collect those light
rays and make them converge onto the lm or sensor at a single point so that we
can reproduce the tip of that eyelash on our photograph exactly the same as it
appears to our eye. If that light converges at a point before the sensor, that eyelash
tip will appear blurry, as the light will converge to a point and then continue on its
merry way, diverging from the point. Similarly, if that light tries to converge at a point
beyond the lm or sensor, the light impacting the plane will not yet be brought to a
single point, and we have the same eect.
What is this eect? An out-of-focus image is created. The tip of that eyelash is
reproduced as a fuzzy collection of reected light that will resemble a blurry eyelash
tip. Now, imagine that an innite number of times from every point of light or
reection in a scene. Blurry!
Unless your name is Hiroshi Sugimoto, you probably do not want to create out-offocus images. Or, if you do, you will want to control how out-of-focus your images
are. To allow your image to be sharp, or to allow you to intentionally not focus, the
camera and lens work together to change the distance of the lens from the sensor or
lm in order to control where the captured light converges. When the light converges
precisely at the plane of the lm or sensor, the image is in focus.
So, on a camera with a lens that has a rotating mechanical focus ring, by turning this
ring you will physically move the focusing lens, or lens-focusing group, to manually
change the distance between the lens and sensor and allow the control of where in
the camera that light converges.
Autofocus
Now that we have a basic understanding of how the lens works to focus the light
onto the sensor or lm, we can talk about the magic of autofocus. As technology
advanced, camera companies gured out how to motorize the camera body and
lenses to move the focusing elements or focusing group toward or away from the
sensor or lm. A vast majority of todays cameras do not have autofocus motors
inside the camera body, but rely on tiny motors built into the lenses, which are
controlled from the camera itself.
Not really rocket science, right? But, how does the camera know when the subject is
in focus? When we focus a lens manually, we look through a viewnder or at an LCD
screen and verify, with our eyes, if the subject looks sharp. Many viewnders in the
days of lm had useful split-screen microprisms at the center that assisted with
manual focusing. The autofocus camera needs to calculate focus electronically as the
lens moves to and from the sensor or lm. And, luckily for us, especially if you do not
have perfect vision, it can now do this extremely fast and accurately.
Active versus Passive
You wont see Active AF systems much these days, but let us give a nod to the
technology. Active AF systems were around in the early days of autofocus technology
and relied on the camera transmitting an ultrasonic or infrared signal toward the
subject. The subject would reect the sound or light back to the cameras focus
sensor and by crunching the time it took to receive the return versus the speed of
sound or speed of light, the camera would know how far away the subject was. It
actually sounds pretty cool and high tech, right? This is, basically, sonar and radar in
a camera. Sonar and radar are cool. So is Active AF.
Before you get all excited about having pioneering technology on your camera, if you
have what is known as an AF-assist lamp on your camera, its use is not an Active AF
systemit merely augments lighting in a dark scene to assist the passive system.
Passive AF is the choice of the vast majority of todays cameras. In the Passive AF
world we have two dierent systems: Phase Detection and Contrast Detection. We
will wrap up this intriguing article by describing how each system works, again,
keeping it relatively simple.
Phase Detection
Phase detection is the system most commonly found on todays DSLR cameras. As
you know, light enters the lens of a DSLR and strikes a mirror that is angled in front
of the sensor or lm. That light is reected up into a prism and then toward the
viewnder at the back of the camera. However, what you might not have known is
that a very small amount of light passes through that mirror, strikes another mirror,
and is reected down toward the bottom of the camera, where the autofocus sensor
lives.
The autofocus sensor contains two or more image sensors with microlenses above
them. These tiny sensors create the cameras autofocus points. The rst passive
autofocus cameras used to have one central focus point. Technology today gives us
cameras with dozens of selectable focus points.
So, how does this autofocus sensor work? In simple terms, phase detection works by
dividing that incoming light into pairs of images before comparing them. The light is
divided as it passes through that transparent part of the main mirror, where that
area acts like a beam splitter. The two distinct images are directed downward to the
aforementioned autofocus sensor, where the two images are compared and their
positional relationship evaluated. A computer inside the camera evaluates the signal
from the autofocus sensor and commands the lens to adjust the focusing elements
inside the lens until the two images appear identical. Once the two images match, the
image is in focus.
Early sensors just evaluated vertical details in the image. This had its limitations as
the system struggled to focus on simple scenes with lots of horizontal components. I
remember turning my old SLR camera sideways to trick the autofocus sensor! Now,
many sensors, called cross-type points, read both horizontal and vertical information
simultaneously. Ahhhh, technology!
Contrast detection is the system used commonly by mirrorless cameras, point-andshoot cameras, DSLR cameras in live view, and smartphone cameras; basically any
camera without a mirror in use.
As you may have noticed, the phase detection systems are complex and have many
components. Contrast detection is much simpler and it uses the light falling on the
main sensor to provide focus. This gives contrast detection one advantage over phase
detection: the number of autofocus points. With phase detection, the number of
points is based on the design of the mirror and how many autofocus sensors live
below that mirror. With contrast detection, the camera can have an almost unlimited
number of focus points. Some modern cameras have touchscreens where the camera
will focus on any point in the image that you designate, with the touch of a nger.
How does it work? Well, the camera commands the focus element of the lens to
move while it reads any decrease in the intensity of light on a pixel or group of
pixels. The maximum intensity indicates the region of sharpest focus. While simplicity
is the advantage of this system, the downside is that the camera must constantly
evaluate images in order to achieve focus. When the light hits the sensor for the rst
time, the camera has no idea if the light is showing its maximum intensity or not until
it changes the position of the lens to vary that intensity. It is kind of the equivalent of
measuring something on a balance scale without knowing the weight. You could put
the counterweight on the opposite end of the scale and nd that it is just right, too
heavy, or too light. The camera gets the initial image, which may be in focus, but in
order to verify, it has to start moving the lens to see if the image gets sharper or
more blurry.
This is called hunting. Those who have older point-and-shoot cameras may
remember, not so fondly, waiting for the lens to nd focus while the action in the
scene passed you by. Luckily, technology surrounding contrast detection autofocus is
always improving, and todays mirrorless cameras and point-and-shoots have the
ability to focus extremely fast.
In Focus
So, now you know how focus works inside your camera. Or, at least, I hope you do.
In a follow-up segment, I will discuss the dierent autofocus modes and how to best
use them to get the photographic results you seek. Thanks for reading!
DISCUSSION
56
Add comment
4 months ago
Very well explained. The animated diagrams are very very nice. Very easy to understand and visualise. Thank you for
all the hard work!
Todd
Vorenkamp
4 months ago
Thank you for reading, Medad! I am glad you enjoyed the article!
shrikant
9 months ago
its useful information for me.. i m searching for camera working and got this information.. its interesting to see
working with practical images.
Todd
Vorenkamp
9 months ago
Humberto Barradas
1 year ago
Excellent,well done...!
Todd
Vorenkamp
1 year ago
Claude McIntosh
1 year ago
Todd
Vorenkamp
1 year ago
Hey Claude,
You are very welcome! I am glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for reading!
Cameraplex
1 year ago
Glad to see you writing on this. For me, optical science is the last bit about camera that I could not easily and uidly
educate others on, and therefore I am doing my best to learn. It's one thing to understand refraction in a simple single
lens system, once you add multiple light elements, then beam splitters or mirrors, and then auto focus systems - it get
wildly intriguing and complicated. I appreciate the choices you made in your presentation.
For those further interested, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has a great free video lecture series available
that is part of their Optics course.
Also I have found an excellent app for iPhone called Ray Lab where you can sample, edit, and create lens systems and
see refractive patterns as you edit the elements.
Todd
Vorenkamp
1 year ago
Hey Cameraplex!
Thanks for reading and thanks for commenting! I am glad you enjoyed the article. Thanks also for the links and
info!
Optics and light are really intriguing topics that I wish I could dive deeper into. However, I denitely make the
choice to try to tell photographers only what they need to know to understand the relationship of these topics to
making photos. I am glad you appreciated the approach! Thanks!
Pablo
1 year ago
Todd,
I enjoyed the article, but there's something I still don't get about your eyelash example. You say "Reected light from
that eyelash is entering the cameras lens at dierent angles because it is reecting at a nearly innite number of
angles". But, if the light source is basically a point (eg. the sun), and the tip of the eyelash is basically a point, and the
lens of the camera is relatively small, I don't get the "reecting at a nearly innite number of angles" part. Is it because
the lens is not a point and the light of the sun reected on the tip of the eyelash enters dierent parts of the lens at
dierent angles? If so, is that the reason why smaller apertures of the diaphragm of the camera produce dierent
depths of led? Please clarify. Thanks.
Todd
Vorenkamp
Hey Pablo,
1 year ago
Chuck DeVivo
1 year ago
Something that may help illustrate if your computer's sound has an eects processor... Find a "click" type
sound like maybe a ticking clock. Go into the eects processor and add echo. Play with the settings and
you'll end up with "TICK...Tick...tick" Next change from echo to reverb, and you'll hear "Tiiiiicccckkk." Think
of the reverb as similar to an out-of-focus picture. It's really an innite number of echos that blend
together, and the out-of-focus picture is an innite number of image convergances.
Todd
Vorenkamp
1 year ago
Juan Bautista
1 year ago
It looks like an easy concept but you guys explin it on detail. I will love to read more articles like this,like for better
understanding on the principles of photography. I know there is a lot to learn. Thx
Todd
Vorenkamp
1 year ago
Thank you, Juan! I have written a lot of informative articles recently. Just drop "Todd Vorenkamp" into the blog
search bar and you will see a list. Soon we plan on having links to these articles available in one place. Thanks for
reading!
guillermo giann...
1 year ago
Muy bueno el articulo. Muy clara y simple la explicacin espero recibir la prxima muy pronto
Gracias
Todd
Vorenkamp
1 year ago
unclegeo
1 year ago
Nothing beats a writer who can make complex topics simple. It's not an easy task -nice job! I'm looking forward to your
other articles.
unclegeo
1 year ago
Todd
Vorenkamp
1 year ago
Hi unclegeo! Just type my name into the Explora search box and you should get a list of articles that I
penned (plus some random stu too...probably!). Let me know if it doesn't work!
Todd
Vorenkamp
1 year ago
Eric Parker
1 year ago
I use a Pentax K20D that is probably 6 years old and many times when using autofocus the camera seems to be
hunting for the correct image. Now I understand why and what to do to improve the situation.
Todd
Vorenkamp
1 year ago
thana yakul
1 year ago
ThanksTodd
Vorenkamp
B&H Customer./Rgds/thana
Todd
Vorenkamp
1 year ago
Royo
1 year ago
Todd
Vorenkamp
1 year ago
Ahmed Kabir
1 year ago
Thank you Todd and great reading & easy understanding such a technical issues. I am a user of Nikon 5100 along with
Nikon lenses 28-70 & 28-300. Frankly I am not totally happy with the shrpness though focusing is well accepted
especially while blowing up the image comparing with pictures taken on lm. Will appreciate once you have chance to
enlighten us on picture sharpness of digital cameras. Kind regards
Todd
Vorenkamp
1 year ago
Hi Ahmed,
My advice to you is to do a controlled test of your gear. Check out this guide: How to Test Your Lens. If you are
still not getting sharp results (or acceptable sharpness), then you might need to have your gear checked out.
Sharpness is a bit subjective, honestly. I will try to think of a way to capture that in an article in the future.
Thanks for reading!
Eric Burrows
1 year ago
Coincidence that on the same day as I got your email and this interesting article my email from DP Review had an
article about software that adjusts the accuracy of autofocus on Canon and Nikon cameras. I may have to go back to a
box Brownie !!
Todd
Vorenkamp
1 year ago
Hi Eric,
Ha! Honestly, maybe not a bad idea there! Remember the days where you just shot a roll of 24, dropped it o,
picked it up, and enjoyed your prints? No computers, no rmware, no software, no late nights editing...yikes. I think
you may be on to something!
Michael Boudreaux
1 year ago
I'm impressed, and would love to read about the dierent focus modes.
Todd
Vorenkamp
1 year ago
Hey Michael,
Focus mode article coming soon! Stay tuned! Thanks for reading!
David Zi
1 year ago
Really glad to see this article and being in the process of reading it. Focusing seems like somewhat of a neglected
subject so I appreciate what seems to be an excellent approach, one that's accessibe to the ardent readers of this
website.
Todd
Vorenkamp
1 year ago
Thanks, David! I hope you still enjoyed the piece after you kept reading!
TwoMetreBill
1 year ago
JV
1 year ago
Always check your new camera in Live mode AF and compare it to the Viewnder AF mode. Set your camera on a
tripod. Open the lens to the widest apeture. Place three focus targets on the wall in a horizontal line and center
your camera. Position the AF target over the left most target. Do the same for the Center and Right target. Now do
the same in the Live View mode. Compare the results. If the Live view mode is sharper than the View nder AF
mode, you have a problem. Do not assume that because you just spent 3-10K on the latest and greatest camera
that you won't have this problem. You would be suprised at how many cameras have this issue. You don't want to
be "that guy" who delivers back focused images. That is my tip for the day.
Todd
Vorenkamp
Hey JV,
1 year ago
Great tip. Testing autofocus is a good thing to do. Fortunately, I have never had an issue with my autofocus,
but I do know it happens. Always check your images and if you consistently are not getting sharp photos,
you need to take a critical look at both your gear and your process.
I hope you make the varsity squad soon!
Pat
1 year ago
Todd
Vorenkamp
1 year ago
Hey Pat. Sorry to hear about your AF failure. Did you have it repaired? Or was there a way to
calibrate it yourself?
Todd
Vorenkamp
1 year ago
Hello TwoMetreBill,
You make a great point, sir, and I agree with you. I chose not to dive into the autofocus correction topic in this
segment as I felt that would take us down a bumpy road towards the can of worms.
Sorry about your friend's wedding photos. We have some wedding articles coming up and one thing that many
wedding pros told us was that you need to check, test, and re-check your gear. Yikes. Tough break.
Thanks for reading!
H Tyree
1 year ago
Todd
Vorenkamp
1 year ago
Tom Dodge
1 year ago
Wow! An exemplary explanation with supporting animation to make things clearly focused in understanding.
Congratulation of the eectiveness with which you delivered it all...
Todd
Vorenkamp
Tom,
1 year ago
Henry
1 year ago
I've been using cameras for years, and always had a good understanding of manual focus. Autofocus, particularly the
dierence between Phase Detection and Contrast Detection were always a bit of a mystery. Thanks for clarifying!
Todd
Vorenkamp
1 year ago
Rohit Nayak
1 year ago
Hello,
The scientic aspect of this article is so beautifully presented, I am guessing you must have worked hard on editing the
discussion. I happen to do similar tricks with ultrasound waves (beam-forming) for my PhD thesis, so it further kept me
groved in. Currently, I am using a SONY a7ii, if you get a chance to discuss some of its auto-focusing and stability
mechanisms it will be great; there isnt much literature on mirrorless cameras. I have also used Sony a6000 for a long
time, which has the reputaion of being the fastest auto-focusing camera with 11 frames per second, I hope you will
cover some of its auto-focusing tricks in your next article.
Very good job, keep it up. Kudos.
Rohit
Todd
Vorenkamp
1 year ago
Hi Rohit,
Thanks for your comments!
As far as focusing on your a7II is concerned, this is what we have on our sales page for the focusing system:
I will definitely look into an article on image stabilization systems for a future Explora piece. Thank you very
much for your compliments! See you next time!
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