Display focus points in Lightroom

I don't know for all cameras but for my Canons the raw file includes data about the focus points achieved. Digital Photo Professional will display these, which is extremely useful for figuring out why your photo is so fuzzy. Going out to DPP is a pain though. It would be useful to be able to toggle focus point display (probably for raw files only) in Develop and Library views - especially if subject distance (=focus distance) is also displayed per my previous post.

"hint: build a cheat sheet for Lightroom using your camera manufacturer software"
Huh? What is a cheat sheet? And how could I use my manufacturer soft ware to build such a thing?
I could scroogle on "Vaporware" but "Cheat sheet" did not give me any decent clue.

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Displaying focus points in LR3

Hi all
Is it possible to display focus points in Lightroom? I switched to Lightroom from Aperture, which used to let me do this, so I guess the information must be stored in the EXIF data somewhere.
Many thanks

The focus points are in the metadata, and can be made available in Lightroom via ExifMeta. You will have to learn where AF-point "C6" lies on your photos, by comparing metadata with focus point display using your camera software, until you make a cheat sheet or memorize it. But, it may be good enough until the super-groovy AF point displayer plugin is ready...
Rob

Show focus points in lightroom

I have Canon DSLRs and the EXIF metadata clearly contains the focal points that the camera focused on (I can see it with Canon Digital Photo Profiessional)
I'd like to have the same view in Lightroom, i.e. Lightroom gives me a "viewfinder-like" overlay that shows the focal points which the camera was using.

That query shows no results (for me).
This one shows other messages with focus points in their text:
https://forums.adobe.com/search.jspa?q=focus+points

Focus point. Display in Lightroom 4.4 64Bit Canon 7D RAW file.

By accident a while ago I saw the focus point displayed on the library photo in Lightroom. This was useful for quick elimination of slightly out of focus shots. It can be shown in camera on the preview. Any ideas?

Keith_Reeder wrote:
Someone was working on a plug-in that would import this functionality, but that project seems to have died a death a couple of years back.
It's been resurrected, by a different author:
http://www.lightroomfocuspointsplugin.com/

Problem with showing focus points in 3.5.1 & 10.9

I cannot always display the focus points either by using Option + F or View > Show Focus Points on my MBP, late 2012.
Prior to 3.5.1 & 10.9, either one of these commands would always display or remove, the focus points.
At times I can restore the focus point display by either closing and opening Aperture or by rebooting OS X. Today, nothing restores this function.
Anyone else with this problem or hopefully know of a solution?
Thanks, Bill
FWIW Apple, where is Aperture 4??

Clem
There is some data in Console.ap, the latest being about 45 minutes ago. With a filter set for APERTURE there are several references to :
"12/3/13 2:53:02.038 Aperture[1324]: The function `CGContextClear' is obsolete and will be removed in an upcoming update. Unfortunately, this application, or a library it uses, is using this obsolete function, and is thereby contributing to an overall degradation of system performance."
and a 13 inch screen full of generally single items. I do not know how to read / use this info.
After your message, I went to Aperture and used Option + F, View > Show Focus Points and moused over the small icon representing focal points in the upper right hand corner of the inspector with the info tab selected (just under the JPEG icon) several times but that did not generate any new data in Console.ap.
Hope this is what you were refering to.
Bill

Focus Points

Is there any way of aesthetically changing the points that display non-focus areas to a light grey instead of red. Or better yet increase the intensity of the points that are in focus.
Have Ape

Well you should obviously see that the photo was recomposed, because you see the photo :-P
I'm thinking of the situation where you're importing older archived shots from several years ago - I've just recently finished importing shots dating back to 2001. I'm pretty certain there could easily be shots in which it might not be obvious that that you'e recomposed after setting the focus.
If the AF point is a selected point and is off in the sky but your subject is in focus, you could probably draw the conclusion.
Agreed - that would be an easy one to judge. But your landscape shot might be composed of the near foreground through to distant rolling hills - and little or no sky. So if the focus point appears in the middle, was the shot focussed on the the boulders 10' ahead to the left or the bushes 30' off to the right - or in the middle?
But what you're asking isn't really possible
I wasn't asking for it - I realised long ago the impossibility of dependably recording this info in every situation. I was merely pointing out that the possibility existed.
Regards,
Gary

Focus points Aperture 3.0.3 not correctly shown

Hi,
When I press the Alt-F key-combination the focus points are shown in the image. But for some reason they are off. I took some pictures where I'm sure I used the center focuspoint, but in Aperture they show up as the far right focuspoint.
Is this a known issue ?
Grtx,
Remco

Remco - this is NOT an explanation or answer to your question (sorry), but I sometimes see the focus point highlighted in RED, other times it is highlighted in WHITE...I have 12 focus points in the VF and the display normally shows the correct one (as I remember), but as described, the selected point varies in color...I don't understand this and wonder if that part of the metadata handling is buggy...I've also noticed that sometimes metadata values are reported as scientific notation (2.3 x E*some value), other times as ordinal numbers (the correct way)..makes me suspicious of ALL of the metadata info presented.
Sorry I couldn't help but only corroborate and commiserate...maybe someone from Apple will see this and look into the problems.
cheers,
david

Focus points not showing for Nex 7 images in Aperture.

Whilst it's good that Aperture now supports my Nex 7, I've noticed that focus points don't show and the option in the metadata tab isn't even there with my Nex photos. It's still available for other cameras though. Anyone else with the same problem. Or do I have to wait for another update. Any comments welcome as it is a feature I use in post processing.
Thanks
John

If you have a tool that lets you look at the EXIF data in the image file you could check to see if this is in facr true.
The entries you are looking for are the ones that start with AF, there are a few such as AF points in focus and AF points selected. There is also two AF entries that have a series of x and y positions. Those are the auto focus points. If there in there then Aperture should be abel to display them.
The EXIF tool I use is Exiftool. It's command line so thakes some getting use to but it is definitly worth having on your system.
reegards

Focus points in Lr 5

I come from Apple Aperture, after switching to LR5 I have hardly looked back. however two things I miss every day. the ability to display the active focus points, it can be done, it works fine in Aperture. And I miss a magnifying glass so you can quickly spot check a photo without having to enlarge the entire image.
Add the two things, and LR is the best RAW converter there is.
regards Henrik

HenrikP wrote:
I miss a magnifying glass so you can quickly spot check a photo without having to enlarge the entire image.
Maybe not as nice as Aperture's (?) - you have to be in develop module to use it, but there is magnified view for spot-checking in the detail section - click the oobey-goobie.. (see red box):
I used to use that alot, but more often now I just zoom in and move the rectangle in navigator around - which you can do in library module too.
Rob

Show focus points - not showing...

I'm shooting with a 1D Mark III, and when I select "show focus points" not seeing the focus points...
Is this supposed to actually show where my focus point was on the shot(s)
That would be very helpful. What am I doing wrong?

Allan Eckert wrote:
I don't know what Kirby is talking about. He seems to be answering someone else's question.
It reads pretty clearly to me.
The camera has a sensor. Additionally, it has an array of focus-sensors that are fixed in position relative to the main sensor. Which of these focus-sensors was used by the auto-focus system to determine the focusing distance is what is displayed by the feature under discussion.
The point I'm trying to make is that the "focus point" in the discussion refers to which exact focus-sensors in the camera were used to achieve auto-focus. Unless your camera and your subject did not move between the time of focus-lock and the time of exposure, there will not be an exact correspondence between the spot on the sensor that is associated with that focus and what is depicted under that spot in the image.
In my practice, I find it much more awkward and time-consuming to select a focus point while the shot is framed than it is to focus with the central cross-type focus-sensors, lock focus, and then frame the exposure. So for me -- and I think many others -- knowing which focus-sensor was used by the auto-focus system doesn't tell me anything: there is no correspondence between the focus-sensor used and the image.
In the linked blog post, the author shows an image with the selected focus-sensor super-imposed over the model's upper eyelid. IME, it is assuming too much to assume that the autofocus system used that spot on the model's face when it determined the focusing distance.
There are programs that will analyze the actual image and attempt to show what parts of the image are in sharpest focus. Aperture does not do that.
This is -- as I indicated -- tangent to the OP's question. But the way s/he worded the question made me think that s/he things there is a certain one-to-one correspondence between the focusing-sensor used and the objects depicted under that focusing-sensor when it is superimposed over the image. There is not. I found that important to know, and so I pass it along.

Metadata - Canon Focus Points : can LR show them ?

I shoot using Canon 400D and also have Canon's Zoombrowser software. One thing that Zoombrowser does that I use occasionally is to show the auto-focus points active for a given shot.
Is there anyway to get Lightroom to show the focus points in a similar manner ?
I'm guessing there probably isn't, I can't see that info' anywhere in the metadata using Exiftool so I presume it's in a private Canon data area. Just thought I'd check that there's not a switch I'm missing somewhere.
Cheers

The QCC wrote:
Just for the record, the AF point is stored in the EXIF data area for Canon EOS cameras.
And over there for Nikon, and over there for Pentax, except that the Pentax bodies also have to change this based on the lens mounted, so the metadata is in at least two places...

Viewing selected focus points from RAW file in Lr5 ?

Why doesn't Lightroom have a plugin or option available to view the focus points that were used in the original photo?
The info is stored in the metadata and shows up for in-camera photo review but it does not show up after .nef file is converted to .dng in Lightroom. This is a very useful tool that could easily be implemented in a future Lightroom upgrade.

elie-d wrote:
Might be a good area for a third-party plugin (hint, hint).
Luc Renambot had a working prototype (on Mac, for one model at least - maybe more) but never reached the finish line for some reason.
PS - exiftool can decode focus point info for most cameras, so it's not a matter of difficult-to-acquire or missing info.
Maybe just not quite enough bang for buck - dunno.
Work-around for mean time (Nikon example) - keep ViewNX open and invoke script to open file in ViewNX if you wanna view focus point(s) - examples:
Simple Lightroom script:
no plugin required, but if you prefer plugin:
One keystroke sequence and you're there - focus points a-blazin'..
Also, ExifMeta makes focus points available for lib filters and/or smart collections - all cameras (supports custom decoding in case you want to create a text pattern which mirrors graphical representation, or just make it easier to read..).
Not as convenient as you'd like - I know...
~R.

Aperture 3 and focus points

I uncovered something with Apple’s Aperture 3 that I can’t find documented anywhere: namely that using the “Show Focus Points” feature changes how it displays the information depending on the focusing mode the camera is in. At least with my Nikon D2H anyway.
Here’s the deal. If I set the camera to either single-area AF or dynamic-area AF, Aperture displays the focus point is a red triangle. If I set the camera to either group dynamic-AF or dynamic area AF with closest subject priority, Aperture displays the focus point as a bold white rectangle.
A minor point, sure, but having the color change for no apparent (or documented!) reason was disorienting.

Hi and welcome to the list.
Is the lack of focus points only happening on the pictures your friend is taking in burst mode? Knowing that would at least narrow down the search for a solution.
I'm not sure if burst mode would effect this, it may also be a camera specific thing. Does your friend have the cannon software? if so you could import into that and see what the results are.
In the mean time I would suggest you do a test. Take a series of shots normally and then take a series in burst mode. See what happens. Report back.
good luck

How do I show the focus point in Elements 12?

How do I show the focus point in Elements 12? There are times when displaying the camera focus point(s) in either the organizer or the editor would be very helpful in analyzing pictures. Is there a way to do this?

As far as I know this is a feature specific to a given camera manufacturer. Only their proprietary editing softwares can interpret the proprietary metadata...

Why can't Adobe add the feature of viewing focus points? This is an obvious, common sense feature that Adobe Engineers must understrand how to do, No?

Why can't Adobe add the feature of viewing focus points? This is an obvious, common sense feature that Adobe Engineers must understrand how to do, No?
I've seen this requested in several past Lightroom versions.
Is Adobe not addressing this basic feature for a reason?, I mean, even Aperture has this feature, it can't be that hard to add? Can it?
Maybe Adobe isn't reading the feature request?

Honestly, I am hardly qualified to even guess - there are tons of bugs reported that would be easy to fix, but aren't, features that would be useful and easy enough to implement, but aren't. Things like focus points which seem like a no brainer but are never implemented - your guess is as good as mine..
But to be clear: focus points are different for different cameras, and are stored in proprietary metadata. - not impossible to get at, obviously, but requires some programming/maintenance..
Worth noting: Apple is shutting down their Aperture business. Yeah, they support focus points and all kinds of good stuff, but I guess Aperture isn't a real money-maker for them (lotsa maintenance work, but not a lot of revenue) - relatively small market.
Adobe has been working on Revel, and Lightroom Mobile.., instead of focus points (and bug fixes, and...) - my guess: that's where the money is, or where they think it is.
Cheers,
Rob

Display focus points in Lightroom

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