How to ease LV focusing

[stenrasmussen]

This may be old news but while playing with the camera I cranked sharpening, saturation, contrast and brigtness to max values and this makes areas in focus much easier to assess.

[bjornthun]

This sounds like a version focus peaking. Does your camera offers focus peaking in the LV mode?

[David H. Hartman]

Which camera make and model?

[stenrasmussen]

No focus peaking in my Nikons. Tried it with Df and D3200. Will try with my D750 when I get it back from service.

[Tristin]

Works on the D750, thanks for the heads up!

[Roland Vink]

How do you set sharpening, saturation, contrast and brigtness for LV?

[Tristin]

It uses the jpeg picture profile you have set.

[Asle F]

Don't do it if you are using jpegs

The drawback is that it also affects the histogram.

[stenrasmussen]

Nothing is preventing one to add a picture style for LV focusing only and then switch to an apptopriate style to make the photo.

[David H. Hartman]

Nothing is preventing one to add a picture style for LV focusing only and then switch to an apptopriate style to make the photo.

The least trouble while shooting is to create a custom Picture Control, shoot NEF and then switch the PC in post. I do this anyway as I strip the sharpening when developing as the Standard PC may sharpen fine details too much with D800 NEF(s). A final step usually in Photoshop is to apply sharpening for the image's intended use just before exporting to JPG or TIF. I generally do not save the sharpening with the original PSD file. If a JPG is needed soon after shooting a JPG can be created in camera from an NEF. If it's needed immediately one would need to change the PC for LV focus and then again for shooting.

If there is a problem with histogram this can be reduced by maxing the sharpening of the Standard PC without other changes then saving it in Manage Picture Controls in the Shooting Menu. For cameras that offer Clarity in the PC pumping it up might help. I can't test this as my cameras don't support Clarity in camera while CNX-D does in post. I used C9 custom setting for an LV, PC with my D800. The D800 doesn't have the best Live View (It's really rather poor). Using a Neutral or Flat PC in camera is going to make the LV image really mushy. If an image needs highlight recovery I'll usually switch the PC to a custom PC I call Neutral -Sharp or I might go all the way to Flat -Sharp. Right now I'm developing NEF(s) about 90% of the time in CaptureNX-D and finishing up in Photoshop.

Dave