Best Peak Focusing Color? White! (no kidding)

[bags27]

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Messing with the peak focusing colors--most of the time I use red--I discovered that WHITE is the best. Not only does it cover a larger part of the screen, but sometimes it shimmers like an old-school fresnel focusing screen. For me, at least, it's become the easiest color to spot when the picture is in focus.

[Leica Guy]

I chose a different way. I desaturated the normal image (jpg) then any of the peak focused colors shows up very strongly.

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[bags27]

Thanks, Dan. But when I set jpg at monochrome, it makes my dngs monochrome also. I shoot only dngs. Do you do something differently?

[Leica Guy]

Thanks, Dan. But when I set jpg at monochrome, it makes my dngs monochrome also. I shoot only dngs. Do you do something differently?

No it does not. You may have seen the hummingbird photos recently. They were all taken using JPEG Saturation set to Monochrome. I only shoot DNG’s. I don’t do anything extra when I import them to LR. Are you using a different post processing program? You might try touching the image in your development module. For instance if you shoot a cropped version in the camera when it first comes up in LR its cropped. If you go into crop mode in LR, it will then show the entire uncropped image.

Edited July 18, 2018 by Infiniumguy

[Voxen]

Thanks, Dan. But when I set jpg at monochrome, it makes my dngs monochrome also. I shoot only dngs. Do you do something differently?

 

 

Your DNG files will never be monochrome, saturated, contrasted or whatever. What you actually see is an embedded small JPEG preview that is monochrome, its used to preview the file content in your camera LCD display or your computer.

 

But as soon as you open your DNG with Lightroom or any post processing software, you'll see the raw image that is in color.

 

So never worry about camera color settings if you shoot DNG.

[jaapv]

Messing with the peak focusing colors--most of the time I use red--I discovered that WHITE is the best. Not only does it cover a larger part of the screen, but sometimes it shimmers like an old-school fresnel focusing screen. For me, at least, it's become the easiest color to spot when the picture is in focus.

Actually, it mostly depends on the colour of the subject. The most practical, as Dan mentions, is setting the camera to B&W and use red. Only if you shoot DNG of course, on B&W JPG-only output the file will not contain colour information.

[bags27]

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Thanks, all! 

 

I think the CL section has an ask and answer thread. This would have been a good discussion for something similar: something we should (inevitably) call Q Tips.

Edited July 18, 2018 by bags27

[pico]

Actually, it mostly depends on the colour of the subject. The most practical, as Dan mentions, is setting the camera to B&W and use red.

 

How curious to me because red tends to back focus.

[jaapv]

That is a first for me - interesting. Maybe chromatic aberration in your eye lens?

[Leica Guy]

I read the human eye is most sensitive to green. Around 555 nm wavelength. Wonder if we should be using green?

[jaapv]

Technically yes, but red is the colour our brain is most alert to.

[stuny]

About 6% of males are color blind to red-green, so if you're in the 6%, select another color.  About 9% of males are at least partly color blind.  That seems to be almost nonexistent in women.

[bags27]

After following everyone's advice on jpeg saturation and appreciating that seeing B&W on the screen doesn't mean one doesn't get color dngs, I still like white the best for peak focusing. It's entirely different than the 3 colors and is especially helpful, in fact, in B&W: it really shimmers and gives an old-school fresnel feel to it. Not for everyone, obviously, but worth a try.

[Leica Guy]

After following everyone's advice on jpeg saturation and appreciating that seeing B&W on the screen doesn't mean one doesn't get color dngs, I still like white the best for peak focusing. It's entirely different than the 3 colors and is especially helpful, in fact, in B&W: it really shimmers and gives an old-school fresnel feel to it. Not for everyone, obviously, but worth a try.

I confess that I never tried white. It seemed counter intuitive to me. Now I will. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

Well, I’ll have learned something new. I just tried white and compared it to green and red. The white is more visible. I’m going to keep it selected and try it for awhile. Thanks again. I am delightfully surprised.

Edited July 20, 2018 by Infiniumguy

[marchyman]

Me too, as in I also have never tried white with the camera display set to B&W and now I'll have to give it a try.