Focus-Points

Focus Points – User Manual

Content

Troubleshooting / FAQ

Scope and Limitations

Overview and Basic Operation

Display of Focus Points

Special Topics

1. Scope and Limitations

A plugin for Lightroom Classic1 on Windows and macOS:

1 LR5.7 and LR6 perpetual licenses and LrC subscriptions.
2 For Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fuji, Olympus/OM, Panasonic, Pentax, Ricoh, Apple. See full list of supported cameras.
3 Depending on the presence of metadata.
4 Currently supported for Pentax and OM System.
5 Currently supported for Fuji, OM System (subjects, faces) and Sony, Olympus, Pentax (faces).
6 Not for LR5.

To understand the principles of this plugin, how to use it and how to interpret the results, it is recommended that you read chapters 1, 2 and the part of chapter 3 that applies to your camera.

Principle of operation

The plugin uses ExifTool to retrieve metadata from the image file. Autofocus related information is extracted from the metadata and processed to detect and visualize focus points, faces and subjects. For this to work, the plugin needs an image file that contains camera manufacturer specific metadata information (makernotes) as written by the camera to each JPG or RAW file.
The plugin will not be able to show focus points for image files that do not contain makernotes.

Note: ExifTool is part of the plugin package and does not need to be installed separately.

Because the plugin works inside Lightroom, it is important to understand that Lightroom does not read makernotes information when importing files. When the plugin is run on a selected photo, it calls ExifTool to process the underlying image file on disk. When Lightroom exports a photo as JPG or TIFF to pass to an external application for editing, it creates a new image file without the makernotes metadata. The re-imported result from that application will not have this information, which is essential for the plugin to work.

Examples of when focus points are not displayed:

For external applications launched from within Lightroom that take a RAW file as input (typically invoked from the ‘Plug-in Extras’ menu), the plugin may work on the resulting file imported into Lightroom if the application leaves the original file’s makernotes intact. This is because in this case Lightroom does not physically pass on the file to the external application but only the name of the image file.

Examples, for which focus point display may work on image files created based on original files:

Note that this may depend on the specific camera make/model.
E.g. for Fuji DNG files the plugin will not be able to display focus points.

Cases where the Focus Points plugin may not be able to display meaningful information:


2. Overview and Basic Operation

This section will explain how to install, configure, and use the plugin.

2.1 Installation

  1. Download the latest release of the plugin package.
    A file named Focus-Points-[plugin_version].zip will be downloaded to your computer.

  2. Unzip the downloaded file. Inside the extracted content locate the plugin folder focuspoints.lrplugin.
    MAC users: According to your macOS preferences the zip file will be automatically unzipped.

  3. Find the folder where you keep your Lightroom plugins.
    If you don’t know where this is, open Lightroom, go to File → Plug-in Manager and click Add. This will open a “Select Folder” dialog in Lightroom’s default folder for plugins.

  4. To update an existing installation, first remove the folder containing the version of the plugin you want to update. You can delete the folder or rename it, for example, to focuspoints.lrplugin.303 (for version 3.03). This allows you to easily revert to the previous version if the update causes issues.
    Note: It is necessary to remove the plugin folder at OS level because deleting a plugin in Lightroom’s Plug-in Manager only removes it from Lightroom’s list of known plugins. The plugin folder and its contents on disk remain as they are.
    Important: Copying the downloaded files over those in the existing folder is not recommended!

  5. Move the downloaded plugin folder focuspoints.lrplugin to the folder where you keep your Lightroom plugins.
    MAC users: if you have to navigate into the content of the adobe lightroom classic.app, use the control-click and choose show package content.

  6. Open Lightroom and go to File → Plug-in Manager.
    New installation:
    Windows: Click the Add button and select the plugin.
    MAC: In case of you’d copied the plugin to the default LR-plugin location, the new plugin is already listed - activate it. Otherwise, click on the Add button and select the plugin.
    Update installation:
    Select the plug-in and click Reload plug-in (only applies if Lightroom is open during the installation of the update.)

Once the plugin has been installed, choose one or more photos and select:

See How to use a keyboard shortcut to run the plugin to learn how to invoke the plugin using a hotkey.

If you have never used Lightroom plugins before and are looking for some basic information, a video tutorial would be a good place to start. For example, Plugin Installation (5:16) or How to Install & Remove Lightroom Plug-ins (11:30).


2.2 Focus Point Viewer

Once the plugin is installed, you can run it with one or more photos selected:

Library module:
Library → Plug-in Extras → Focus Point

Develop module:
File → Plug-in Extras → Focus Point

In V3.2, you no longer need to select the corresponding photos before starting the plugin to display the focus point for multiple photos. The plugin now supports next and previous function when run on a single image (the current one in Lightroom filmstrip). Next image will advance to the next photo in the filmstrip, and Previous image will advance to the previous photo in the filmstrip. Unlike with a set of selected photos, there is no wrap-around when the beginning or end of the film strip is reached.

To run the plugin on a specific series of photos, select those photos in Lightroom before running the plugin.

Note: Filmstrip navigation uses the ‘LrSelection’ namespace, which is only available in SDK version 6.0 and above. Therefore, this feature is not available on LR5.7.

User Interface

The user interface is divided into three main areas. On the left is the Photo View, which shows visualized focus points and detected elements. On the right is the Info View, a side-by-side view of information that may be useful for evaluating the photo in terms of focus results. The controls for navigating and flagging images are located at the bottom of the window.

User Interface

The Focus Point Viewer window is not dynamically resizable. However, V3.2 introduces a Size of plugin window setting that allows you to customize the size of the plugin window. You can choose from five options ranging from XXL to S. This setting corresponds to 80% (XXL) downto 40% (S), in increments of 10%, of the size of the Lightroom application window and it refers to the dimensions of the photo view. The info view and the bottom row of user controls are not included in this percentage. The space allocated to these areas is in addition to the size setting.

Click on the following links for more detailed information:

  1. Photo View
  2. Info View
  3. Plugin Status
  4. Navigation Controls
  5. Flagging Controls
  6. Keyboard Shortcuts
  7. Buy me a coffee

Photo View

The plugin uses colors to visualize autofocus points, detected faces, subjects and details. This means that the respective area is highlighted by a rectangular marker:

Basic Operation 1

This overview shows which elements are supported by the plugin, and the shapes and colors used to visualize them. On Windows, the rectangular marker is a solid frame. On macOS, the frame is indicated by corner symbols*.

MAC WIN Color Meaning
infocus infocus red1 Active AF point. Focus area, dimensions reported by the camera
infocusdot infocusdot red1,2 Active AF point. Focus location3, pixel coordinates reported by the camera
selected selected white User-selected AF point
inactive inactive gray Inactive AF point. Part of DSLR AF points but not used for the image3
face face yellow Face or subject detected by the camera in this area
crop crop black Part of the image that is used by the camera in ‘crop mode’

1 AF point color can be chosen from red, green, blue in Viewing Options.
2 ‘Focus-pixel’ shape and size can be chosen from different options (small box or medium/large with center dot) in Viewing Options.
3 The meaning may vary depending on the camera manufacturer. See the camera-specific chapters for a detailed explanation.

* Tech Note: Windows and macOS use different rendering implementations, so the display of focus points and other elements looks different on each operating system. On macOS, focus points and face/object detection and cropping frames are indicated only by the corners, while on Windows, all frames have solid lines. This is due to the fact that the Lightroom SDK methods for overlaying information (frame corners and center points) on an image work on macOS but not on Windows. On Windows, this is done by ImageMagick (mogrify), which draws rectangles with solid lines.

Availability of the same method(s) on both platforms (ideally chosen by the user) would be desirable, but this is challenging and requires significant effort.

Info View

The text pane right to the photo view comprises three groups:

Image information and Shooting information are largely taken from the Lightroom catalog, so this information is available for every photo. Depending on the availability of information in the makernotes, these two sections may be expanded to include various camera-specific information such as crop mode, drive mode, shot number, etc., which may be useful in the context of evaluating focus results.

Focus information is only available for photos for which the corresponding image file contains complete metadata. See Scope and Limitations for more detailed information.

Two buttons at the bottom of the window allow you to move forward and backward through a series of photos, if more than one was selected in Lightroom when the plugin was launched. In case the plugin was launched on a single photo, the buttons are inactive.

A link to the User Guide (this document) provides quick and easy access to the operating instructions.

The window can be closed by clicking Exit or pressing <Enter> or <Esc> or <Space>.

Depth of Field, Hyperfocal Distance

Most camera makers include subject or focus distance information in makernotes. Sony, Fuji and Pentax do not, so this section is not relevant to images taken with their cameras.

ExifTool uses the focus distance information to calculate the depth of field (DoF), which can be helpful in assessing whether the lens is stopped down enough to capture a subject “acceptably sharp”, i.e. whether the desired portion of the subject is “in focus”. ExifTool also calculates the hyperfocal distance, which can be helpful in determining if the autofocus is set at the correct distance for photos that should be sharp from front to back (e.g. landscapes).

Note that the accuracy of focus distance values is limited. Cameras are not designed to measure distances. The values given in the EXIF data are byproducts of the focusing process, derived from control information to move the lens to a certain distance. Such focus step counts can be approximated as a distance. The degree of inaccuracy, and therefore the usefulness of this data, depends on several aspects. Typically, focus distance values are less accurate at short focal lengths. Also, this information is likely to be inaccurate under extreme conditions (macro or infinity). Finally, the equipment also plays a role.

Technical note: ExifTool creates pseudo tags DepthOfField and HyperfocalDistance which can be seen in ExifTool output. For calculation of DoF it uses the standard circle of confusion parameter for the respective sensor. In this context, the term “sharpness” refers to the ability of the human eye to recognize and resolve details when an image is viewed at full size, i.e. not enlarged, also known as “pixel peeping”.

Basic Operation 5

Example: DoF in this capture is only ~2 cm, so with the chosen aperture of f/1.8 the eyes will be outside the sharp zone if the shot is focused on the front whiskers.

User Messages

The first line of text in the Focus Information section contains a message summarizing whether the plugin was successful in its task to detect and visualize focus points. This can be a success message (in green letters), a warning (orange) or an error message (red):

Type Message
Success Focus points detected
Warning No focus points recorded
Warning Focus point recorded in manual focus mode
Warning Manual focus, no AF points recorded
Error Focus info missing from file
Error Camera model not supported
Error Camera maker not supported
Error No camera-specific metadata found
Error Severe error encountered

Click on the message to learn what it means and how to deal with it in case of an error or warning.

You can also access this information from the plugin window by clicking the link icon 🔗 next to the message:

Basic Operation 6

Plugin Status

If errors or warnings were encountered while processing the autofocus metadata, a status message is displayed at the bottom of the text pane. To the right of this message, you can click the Check log button to open the logfile for more details. The logfile contains detailed information about the metadata processing, such as relevant tags found (or not found).
See Logging how to set up and customize logging.

For the image above, where focus info is said to be “missing from file”, the logfile looks like this:

Basic Operation 3

There are two warnings and one error: The tag CameraSettingsVersion has not been found which means that this file does not contain a makernotes section with AF information (which is required for the plugin to work). The image file was not created in-camera but by an application. In this case, it is a JPG file exported from (and created! by) Lightroom.

In V3.2, you no longer need to select the corresponding photos before starting the plugin to display the focus point for multiple photos. The plugin now supports next and previous function when run on a single image (the current one in Lightroom filmstrip). Next image will advance to the next photo in the filmstrip, and Previous image will advance to the previous photo in the filmstrip. Unlike with a set of selected photos, there is no wrap-around when the beginning or end of the film strip is reached.

To run the plugin on a specific series of photos, select those photos in Lightroom before running the plugin.

Note: Filmstrip navigation uses the ‘LrSelection’ namespace, which is only available in SDK version 6.0 and above. Therefore, this feature is not available on LR5.7.

Flagging Controls

Users for whom focus point accuracy is critical when selecting shots now have the ability to flag, reject, rate or color images directly within the plugin. The user interface has been updated to include the relevant controls:

Screenshot Windows

Screenshot macOS

Tagging can be performed using the same logic and keyboard shortcuts as in Lightroom. Pressing the Shift key during tagging moves the plugin to the next photo.

Notes / Restrictions:

Keyboard Shortcuts

To simplify the operation of the plugin, keyboard shortcuts are supported. These shortcuts can be used to perform all actions associated with the user interface, so the plugin can be controlled entirely by the keyboard, without the need to touch the mouse.

Some shortcuts in V3.1 have been changed to avoid collision with Lightroom tagging shortcuts. Previously, ‘p’ was used for ‘previous’, ‘x’ for ‘exit’, and ‘u’ for ‘user manual’. Instead of ‘Exit’, the plugin will now close using the ‘Close’ button (shortcut ‘C’).

Action Keyboard shortcuts
Navigation  
Previous image -, <
Next image +, Spacebar
Flagging  
Flag photo as a pick P
Flag photo as a pick and go to next photo Shift+P
Flag photo as a reject X
Flag photo as a reject and go to next photo Shift+X
Unflag photo U
Unflag photo and go to next photo Shift+U
Rating  
Set star rating 1-5
Set star rating and go to next photo Shift+1-5
Color  
Assign a red label 6
Assign a yellow label 7
Assign a green label 8
Assign a blue label 9
Assign a color label and go to next photo Shift+6-9
Miscelleanous  
Open User Manual M
Open Troubleshooting Information (Help) ?, H
Check Log L
Close C


IMPORTANT Technical Note:

The Lightroom SDK does not support the native handling of keyboard events in modal dialogs, so the plugin uses a “trick” to implement keyboard shortcuts. This approach has certain limitations, which are described here for a better understanding.

Due to limitations in the LR SDK, the plugin can only work with text input and cannot recognize key codes. Keyboard shortcuts entered by the user, such as ‘P’ for ‘Set as Pick’ or ‘+’ for ‘Next Image’, are collected as text in a designated input field. If the character entered corresponds to a defined shortcut, the related action is performed.

Arrow keys, Function keys, Esc, Return, etc. do not change text input, so the choice of hotkeys is limited to text (i.e. printable ASCII characters).

This approach works well as long as the focus remains on the input field.

In Windows, only pressing the Tab key or clicking on the photo will remove the focus from the input field. As a result, further keyboard input will not be recognized. Mouse operation does not remove the focus.

On macOS, clicking on any control (button, link text or tagging icon) takes focus away from the input field. With the large number of new controls in V3.2, it is not possible to perform operations using keyboard shortcuts and the mouse simultaneously for the same image.

n V3.1, the text input field for keyboard shortcuts was invisible. The user could not understand why keyboard shortcuts stopped working when focus was removed from the input field by mouse operation. As the LR SDK offers no option to focus on a specific control, the input field must be refocused by the userto continue working with keyboard shortcuts.

To make this procedure more transparent and intuitive, the text input field is now visible by default.

You can configure the size of the text input field, including the labelling, in the plugin preferences.


Buy me a coffee

Several of you have asked how you can show your appreciation for the work I have done to significantly improve the plugin over the past year and months. If you care about this issue, you can now show your support via Ko-fi*. Simply click the link next to the coffee cup.

*Ko-fi is a well-established service that enables users to support creators through voluntary donations. Payments are processed securely via PayPal or credit/debit card, and no account or subscription is required.


2.3 Metadata Viewer

The plugin also features a Metadata Viewer with live search:

This is useful for viewing information that is not visible in the info sections of the focus point window. The data is retrieved by ExifTool directly from the image file on disk, so it gives a complete picture of the metadata written by the camera. Metadata can be filtered by key or value search terms. The filter accepts pattern matching with the well-known “magic characters”:

Char <div align="left">Meaning</div>
. any character
+ one or more repetitions of previous character
* zero or more repetitions of previous character
^ start of string
$ end of string

Note: The plugin is written in the Lua programming language and uses Lua string.find() for filtering. This function supports “Lua patterns”, so you can use even more sophisticated pattern matching. However, for filtering a simple EXIF data output, basic pattern matching should be more than sufficient.

For further processing as text, the full metadata (retrieved via ‘exiftool -a -u -sort ') can also be opened in a text editor.

Sizing of the Metadata Viewer window

In V3.1, tag names that were significantly longer than 40 characters could result in an unusual display in the metadata viewer.

This has been improved in V3.2:

Metdata 1 Metadata 2 Metadata 3


2.4 Configuration and Settings

Selecting ‘Focus Point Viewer’ from the list of installed plugins (Library → File → Plug-in Manager) opens the plugin’s settings page:

Plugin Options


Screen Scaling

Display scale factor. Windows only. Default setting: Auto

The drawing routines used on Windows are not aware of any display scale factor that may have been applied to the Windows configuration (Settings → Display → Scale). In order to avoid that the plugin window gets bigger than the screen size, the plugin has to reverse this scaling when calculating the size of the dialog window.

The Auto setting causes the plugin to scale its windows in sync with a system scale factor. Optionally, a predefined fixed scale value can be selected, which avoids a registry access via an external command (REG.EXE) on each call of the plugin. The meaning of the predefined values 100%, 125%, 150%, etc. is the same as in the Windows Settings dialog. I.e. to undo a system-wide zoom of 150%, the same value ‘150%’ must be selected from the drop-down list.

User Interface Settings

This section is new in version 3.2. It contains several settings that can be used to customize the appearance and functionality of the plugin’s user interface.

Size of plugin window. Default setting: L
This setting allows you to customize the size of the plugin window. You can choose from five options ranging from XXL to S.

Screenshot

In the Focus Point dialog, this setting corresponds to 80% (XXL) to 40% (S), in increments of 10%, of the size of the Lightroom application window used to display the photo. Please note that the text pane to the right of the photo and the bottom row of user controls are not included in this percentage.

In the Metadata Viewer, this setting determines the height of the dialog box. The width is determined by the header line, which includes the two filter entry fields and the hint text.

Note: Windows users already had the option to adjust the size of the focus points window using the screen scaling option specific to Windows. This setting remains as it is.

Appearance of text input field for keyboard shortcuts. Default setting: Regular
To make keyboard shortcuts more transparent and intuitive to use, the text input field that captures them is now visible by default. For a more detailed explanation, see xxx. This setting can be used to customize the appearance of the input field:

Screenshot

Truncate or wrap long strings. Default setting: On, 32 characters
This setting enables you to specify whether long strings, such as metadata values or file names, should be truncated in the display. You can choose the truncation limit, which can be set between 10 and 100 characters. A truncated string is marked with the symbol ‘…’ at the end. The full text can be seen in the tooltip that appears when you hover over a truncated string with the mouse.

Enable controls for flagging. Default setting: On
If you don’t need the controls for flagging, rating or coloring photos in the Focus Point viewer, and you want to avoid overloading the navigation bar, use this setting to hide the tagging controls and disable the related keyboard shortcuts.

Keyboard layout. Default setting: empty
The keyboard shortcuts for flagging, rating and coloring are the same as those used in Lightroom, including the Shift combinations that perform an action and advance to the next photo. Since the plugin cannot recognize key codes and can only work with text input, using the Shift + 0-9 keyboard shortcuts requires the plugin to be aware of the currently used international keyboard layout.
The predefined options cover a large percentage of the available layouts, and more can be added on request. In this specific context, it is important to note that the term ‘layout’ refers only to the codes produced by the 0–9 keys in the top row, and not to the entire keyboard.

Screenshot

Viewing Options

Size of focus box for ‘focus pixel’ points. Default setting: Red
Depending on the camera maker and model, focus points may have a dimension (width and height) or they may be represented by a ‘focus pixel’. For focus points that have a dimension, a box with the specified width and height is displayed. For ‘focus pixel’ points you can choose how to display them: small box or medium/large with a center dot.

Color of in-focus points. Default setting: Medium
You can choose between three different colors for the presentation of focus point boxes: red, green and blue.

Logging

Level of information to be logged. Default setting: Auto

The logging feature serves two purposes:

  1. Gather information to explain why focus points are not displayed
  2. Gather information to help the developer figure out what went wrong if the plugin does not work as expected.

For 1. Auto is the recommended setting, because it logs relevant information that can help to understand why, for example, the plugin is not able to correctly determine the focus point(s) for a given image. If the plugin encounters any errors or warnings during its operation, it will provide a link to view the log for additional information. See example in “User Messages” below.

The logging mechanism provides a fine-grained hierarchy of levels at which information should be logged. Setting a certain logging level in the plugin preferences will cause all messages of that level to be written, including those at lower levels. description, from lower to higher levels:

Level Information logged
None No logging output. No logfile created.
Error Only error messages.
Warning + warnings
Info + information on progress and intermediate results
Debug + important debug information. No noticeable slow down.
Full Full debug information, including entire EXIF data. Slow down.
Auto Same as ‘Info’. Recommended setting. No noticeable slow down of plugin.

Hint: Autologging will start on an empty log file for each image. When you open such a log file, it will immediately focus on the most recent image. The log file will be emptied when the plugin starts for all other logging levels.

Update Check

The plugin checks for an updated version that is available to download. If so, this will be highlighted, and you can click the Open URL button to access the latest version’s release notice. Follow the installation instructions to install the update.

The availability of an update will be indicated:

Update Available

Update Available


3. Display of Focus Points

The subchapters in this section describe in more detail which features are supported by the plugin for individual camera makers and specific lines or models. In this context, “feature” means visualization of:

The plugin uses different colors to visualize these elements (see User Interface).

The extent to which these features can be supported for a given camera model ultimately depends on a) the availability of the corresponding data in the EXIF makernotes and b) the fact whether this information is known to ExifTool.

Even if certain data is recorded by a camera manufacturer, this does not mean that it is “available”. Makernotes is a proprietary metadata section that contains manufacturer-specific information that is not standardized across different brands. Camera makers can use this information to diagnose camera issues, for instance.

The Focus Points plugin fully relies on what ExifTool is able to decode and display. Which in turn doesn’t fall from the sky, but it’s a collaborative effort by camera owners worlwide that are willing to contribute and go where no man has gone before and decode the unknown.

3.1 Nikon

Supported features:

MAC WIN Color Meaning
infocus infocus red1 Active AF point. Focus area, dimensions reported by the camera
infocusdot infocusdot red1,2 Primary AF-Point
inactive inactive gray Inactive AF point. Part of DSLR AF points but not used for the image

1 AF point color can be chosen from red, green, blue in Viewing Options.

The logic for interpreting Nikon-specific autofocus data has been adapted to match the focus point display of NX Studio and Capture NX-D. While this is not rocket science for the Nikon Z, it has been a challenge for Nikon DSLRs. Nikon stores different types of focus point information in different places, making it difficult to find the relevant information and name it consistently. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Warren Hatch for his great support in deciphering and correctly interpreting the Nikon AF information!

Nikon focus point information in EXIF metadata always refers to an area within the frame. For CAF results, this is the coordinates (x,y, height, width). For PDAF results it’s the name(s) of the focus points (e.g. A1, C6, E4) that the plugin maps to the corresponding pixel coordinates. Thus, for Nikon focus points, you can select the color of the box but not its size.

Nikon metadata does not include face or subject detection data, so you won’t see any corresponding detection frames. This does not mean that this information is not present in the file - it just has not yet been decoded by the maintainers and active supporters of ExifTool.

3.1.1 Nikon DSLR

Nikon DSLRs typically have two autofocus systems. A high-performance phase-detection autofocus (PDAF) and a slower contrast autofocus when using Live View.

The position and size of the PDAF focus points are determined by the camera model’s individual sensor AF layout. PDAF points cover only a portion of the frame. For DSLRs with limited focus coverage, the full matrix of focus points is displayed along with the in-focus point.

Examples:

Nikon 8
D7500, Single Area shot. The AF point in focus is highlighted within the matrix of 51 AF points.

Nikon 1
D850, Single Area shot. The AF point in focus is highlighted within the matrix of 55 user-selectable AF points (out of a total of 153).

Nikon 3
D850, Group Area shot.

Nikon 9
D3S, Dynamic Area (3D tracking) shot.

Nikon 7
D6, Dynamic Area (3D tracking) shot. Multiple AF points were used to focus the image; the primary AF point is indicated by a center dot.

Nikon 2
D500, Live View shot. In Contrast AF modes, the focus “point” is an area that varies in size depending on the shooting conditions.

Nikon 6
D780, Live View shot, with several of the sensor based 81 AF areas engaged. The primary AF area is indicated by a center dot.

3.1.2 Nikon Mirrorless

Nikon’s mirrorless cameras feature a hybrid autofocus system that uses both PDAF and CAF to achieve fast and accurate focusing. While earlier models like the Z6 produced a fair amount of images with PDAF results, these images become rare in modern cameras like the Z9, as CAF technology becomes more powerful.

Early Z models had an 81-point (9x9) PDAF, which grew to 493 points (27x15) on the Z8/Z9. Unlike DSLRs, information about inactive (unused) focus points is less useful here, so it is not displayed.

Examples:

Nikon 4
Z9, subject detection “People”.

Nikon 10
Z5 II, no subject detection.

Nikon 5
Z7. The first Nikon mirrorless models tended to determine the focus point using the PDAF grid, especially for “flat” scenes.


3.2 Canon

Supported features:

MAC WIN Color Meaning
infocus infocus red1 Active AF point. Focus area, dimensions reported by the camera
inactive inactive gray Inactive AF point. Part of DSLR AF points but not used for the image

1 AF point color can be chosen from red, green, blue in Viewing Options.

Canon focus point information in EXIF metadata always refers to an area within the frame. Focus point areas are specified by their coordinates (x,y, height, width). Therefore, for Canon focus points, you can select the color of the box, but not the size.

Canon metadata does not include face or subject detection details, so you won’t see any detection frames. This does not mean that this information is not present in the file - it just has not yet been decoded by the maintainers and active supporters of ExifTool.

Unlike other manufacturers, Canon does not give a single value for the focus distance, but rather a pair of values for the lower and upper range.

3.2.1 Canon DSLR

Like Nikon, Canon DSLRs support both PDAF and CAF. The position and size of the PDAF focus points are determined by the individual sensor AF layout of the camera model.

Canon 1
5D Mark IV. PDAF-focused shot with Servo AF Preset “Case 1” and multiple focus points used.

Canon 2
CAF-focused shot using the ‘green’ color for in-focus points for better visibility.

3.1.2 Canon Mirrorless

As with Nikon, Canon mirrorless models feature a hybrid autofocus system. However, in terms of focusing information stored in EXIF, the cooperation of PDAF and CAF is transparent. You can find the x, y positions of the focus point area(s) used to focus the shot as well as their width and height always in the same format.

Canon 3
R3. AI Servo AF with Case A preset and subject detection ‘Animals’

Canon 5
R5 Mark II. AI Servo AF with Case A preset and subject detection ‘Auto’

Canon 6
R1. AI Servo AF with Action Priority “On” and Sport Events “Basketball”.

Canon 4
R1. When capturing flat subjects, focus point display for Canon R-series can be funny sometimes.


3.3 Sony

Supported features:

MAC WIN Color Meaning
infocus infocus red1 Active AF point. Focus area, dimensions reported by the camera
infocusdot infocusdot red1,2 Active AF point. Focus location, pixel coordinates reported by the camera
inactive inactive gray Focal plane phase detect AF-point used during focusing
face face yellow Face detected by the camera in this area

1 AF point color can be chosen from red, green, blue in Viewing Options.
2 ‘Focus-pixel’ shape and size can be chosen from different options (small box or medium/large with center dot) in Viewing Options.

In Sony models, the focus point of an image is specified by the (x, y) coordinates in the FocusLocation tag. Newer models also support a FocusFrameSize tag, which specifies the size of the focus area. Custom focus frame size settings in the plugin’s preferences only apply when the focus frame size is not available in the metadata. In this case, medium and large focus boxes will display a center dot.

Sony 1a.jpg
α9. The focus point recorded by the camera corresponds to the center dot. The box is only there to make the dot more visible.

Sony 1b.jpg
α9 II. If the focal plane phase detection autofocus points have been engaged during the focusing process, they will be displayed in grey.

Sony 2
α9 III. When focus frame size is given in metadata, the focus box cannot be changed in size (since this is determined by the camera) and the box will not have a center dot.

Sony supports face detection on almost all of their mirrorless (alpha) and also compact (RX series) camera. The plugin can display the yellow face detection frames even on images taken with cameras 14 years back where it’s not possible to detect focus points using EXIF data.

Sony 5
α6600 Detected face indicated by a yellow frame. Detected eye in focus indicated by a red dot.

Sony 3
α7 IV. Two face detected, one eye in focus.

Sony 6
RX10 IV. Detected face indicated by a yellow frame. Detected eye in focus indicated by a red dot.

In contrast to Canon and Nikon, there’s not much that you can find in the EXIF maker notes for Sony’s AF menu settings. This is why the focus information section is rather empty. Sony also lacks a focus distance tag, meaning there is no Depth of Field section.

Sony 4
α1 II. The number of known* AF settings entries is small compared to a Canon R5 Mark II.

* not “known” means that information may be present in metadata but has not been identified and decoded yet.

3.4 Fuji

Supported features:

MAC WIN Color Meaning
infocusdot infocusdot red1,2 Active AF point. Focus location, pixel coordinates reported by the camera
face face yellow Face, subject or detail detected by the camera in this area
crop crop black Part of the image that is used by the camera in ‘crop mode’

1 AF point color can be chosen from red, green, blue in Viewing Options.
2 ‘Focus-pixel’ shape and size can be chosen from different options (small box or medium/large with center dot) in Viewing Options.

Fuji metadata contains information on both face and subject recognition. Whether the detected subject is a person, an animal, a bicycle, a car, an airplane, or a train, and whether the detected eye is a real eye or a cockpit, all the information for visualizing a detected subject and its parts is stored in the same place and format.

Fuji focus points are ‘focus pixel’ points with no dimension. For better visualization, you can change the size and color of the focus box in the plugin’s preferences.

Fuji 1
GFX100 II shot with face detection. Heads, faces and eyes are detected for both people (indicated by yellow frames). The focus point is slightly off the detected eye; this can also be seen in shots taken with OM system cameras. It seems that the subject detection analysis performed on a 2D image on the sensor is more accurate than what the 3D autofocus can achieve.

Fuji 2
X-H2S shot with subject detection. The bird’s head and eye were detected.

Fuji 2
X-T5 shot with subject detection. 4 birds were detected, with different level of details. In addition to the coordinates of the detected elements these are also listed in SubjectElementTypes.

Fuji 2
X-T5 shot with face detection. Fuji provides comprehensive information on camera and AF settings in the photo’s metadata.

Fuji 2
Finepix X100 shot with face detection. The plugin supports also compact FinePix models after 2007 .

3.5 Olympus

Supported features:

MAC WIN Color Meaning
infocus infocus red1 Active AF point. Focus area, dimensions reported by the camera
infocusdot infocusdot red1,2 Active AF point. Focus location, pixel coordinates reported by the camera
face face yellow Face or eye detected by the camera in this area

1 AF point color can be chosen from red, green, blue in Viewing Options.
2 ‘Focus-pixel’ shape and size can be chosen from different options (small box or medium/large with center dot) in Viewing Options.

Since 2008, Olympus has been using the same format for storing autofocus information in EXIF for all of its mirrorless cameras (starting with the E-M5 in 2012) as well as the last E-System models (E-5, E-420, E-520, E-620). Therefore, the focus point display is the same for all these models. The AFPointSelected tag contains the pixel coordinates of the focus point. The size and color of the focus box can be adjusted in the plugin’s preferences.

Earlier E-System models used the AFAreas tag, which gives a fixed size area that is displayed without a center point.

Examples:

Olympus 1
This is the typical display for all Olympus cameras from 2008 (E-420, E-520) to 2019 (E-M1X). A single focus point is reported as the focus position.

Olympus 2
By tweaking the AF-Point settings, the focus point display can be adjusted to look like Olympus / OM shooters are used to from the OM Workspace application.

Olympus makernotes also contains information on face detection:

Olympus 3
E-M1 Mark III shot with face detection and Both Eyes priority.

Olympus cameras store two sets of recognized faces (a maximum of eight faces per set). The exact position of a face may differ between the two sets, or a face present in one set may not be present in the other. Since it is neither possible to deduce which set has “better” information, nor to combine the information of the two sets (at least not with reasonable effort), all faces in both sets are visualized by yellow face detection frames.

Olympus 5
A typical example of a situation where no focus point is displayed. Focus Information shows that the AFSearch tag has a value of “Not Ready”, which means that the camera was unable to lock focus when the shutter was pressed. A typical use case is when shooting with release priority or using the back button focus.

Olympus 4 Since V3.1 the plugin supports the whole E-System. While the benefit of supporting the focus point display for the old DSLR models is questionable3 due to their very limited number of AF points (e.g. the E-1 has only 3 AF points), the implementation effort was small since the pre-2008 E-System models follow a very similar logic as the mirrorless models. Instead of using AFPointSelected, the focus area stored in AFAreas can be used to visualize the focus point/area.

3 Using autofocus with a camera that has few focus points usually results in a two-step process: 1. focus on the desired point, then 2. hold the shutter button halfway down and pan the camera to achieve the desired composition. While this can produce great results, it’s impossible to reconstruct the actual focus point. However, the focus point indicator can be useful for action shots, as “focus and pan” is not the best way to capture such scenes.

3.6 OM System

Supported features:

MAC WIN Color Meaning
infocus infocus red1 Active AF point. Focus area, dimensions reported by the camera
infocusdot infocusdot red1,2 Active AF point. Focus location, pixel coordinates reported by the camera
selected selected white User-selected AF point
face face yellow Face, subject or detail detected by the camera in this area

1 AF point color can be chosen from red, green, blue in Viewing Options.
2 ‘Focus-pixel’ shape and size can be chosen from different options (small box or medium/large with center dot) in Viewing Options.

With the release of plugin version V3.1, OM System has its own chapter in this user documentation. This is mainly because previously unknown metadata tags have been identified and decoded: AFSelection, AFFocusArea and SubjectDetectionArea.

With this information, it is possible to visualize not only the AF area selected by the user and the point of focus, but also the frames used to detect the subject. These frames are the same frames that you can see in the viewfinder or on the camera display when shooting with Subject Detection enabled.

3.6.1 OM System - AF Selection

The AF area selected by the user is highlighted in white. The focus area is displayed in the color specified in the plugin preferences. The size of the focus area cannot be selected, as the dimensions are set by the camera.

Here are some examples for visualization of in-focus vs selected AF points (subject detection mode OFF):

OM System 4
“Single” AF Area selected

OM System 2
“Small” AF Area selected

OM System 1
“Medium” AF Area selected

OM System 3
“Custom” AF Area selected

3.6.2 OM System - Subject Detection

The plugin visualizes the subject detection frames as they appear in the viewfinder/on-camera display at the time of capture, according to the available subject detection modes:

User Interface (Multi-image)

The subject and subject detail detection frames are displayed in yellow. The focus area is displayed in the color specified in the plugin preferences. The size of the focus area cannot be selected, as the dimensions are set by the camera. The focus area has a center because the center of this area coincides with the coordinates specified by the AFPointSelected tag.

Birds:

OM System 6
Body and head detected, focus is on the head.

OM System 7
Body and head eye detected, focus is on the eye.

OM System 20
Body and eye detected, focus is on the eye.

Dogs & Cats:

OM System 8
Body and head detected, focus is on the head

OM System 9 Same subject and scene, better detection - head and eye detected, focus is on the eye

Motorsports:

OM System 10
Racing car found, chassis and driver detected. Focus is on the driver.

OM System 11
Motorcycle found, vehicle and driver detected. Focus is on the driver.

OM System 12
Car found, chassis and front detected. Focus is on the front.

OM System 13
The cart is detected as racing car, chassis and driver detected. Focus is on the driver.

Airplanes

OM System 14 OM System 15 OM System 16 OM System 17

Trains

OM System 18
Train and driver compartment detected, focus is on the driver compartment.

Human

OM System 19

3.7 Panasonic

Supported features:

MAC WIN Color Meaning
infocus infocus red1 Active AF point. Focus area, dimensions reported by the camera
infocusdot infocusdot red1,2 Active AF point. Focus location, pixel coordinates reported by the camera
face face yellow Face or subject detected by the camera in this area

1 AF point color can be chosen from red, green, blue in Viewing Options.
2 ‘Focus-pixel’ shape and size can be chosen from different options (small box or medium/large with center dot) in Viewing Options.

Similar to Olympus, Panasonic hasn’t changed the basic logic of focus point data in ages. Since 2008 to be exact. They use the same logic and format in all their cameras. As a result, Panasonic cameras are widely supported across all model lines, from mirrorless to bridge to compact.

Panasonic 1

While the focus point given by AFPointPosition metadata tag has no dimensions, recent Lumix models support an AFAreaSize tag in addition. This tag gives the size of the area used to find focus in subject detection modes. Whenever AFAreaSize exists, AFPointPosition represents the center of this area.

Panasonic 2

Panasonic also supports face detection identification in EXIF metadata. This information is available for recent mirrorless models, for compact cameras I have seen an ZS20 (2012 model!) image that used the same logic and notation for face detection frames.

Panasonic 3

Panasonic doesn’t support a “focus distance” specification in the metadata, so there’s not much to go on other than the focus mode and AF area mode listed in the focus information section.

3.8 Pentax

Supported features:

MAC WIN Color Meaning
infocus infocus red1 Active AF point. Focus area, dimensions reported by the camera
selected selected white User-selected AF point
inactive inactive gray Inactive AF point. Part of DSLR AF points but not used for the image
face face yellow Face or eye detected by the camera in this area

1 AF point color can be chosen from red, green, blue in Viewing Options.

With the release of V3.1, Pentax is not only on par with other camera manufacturers and models in terms of supported features, it is even ahead of the “Big Three”, Canon, Nikon and Sony.

While working on Pentax support, a lot of effort was put into finding and decoding relevant metadata tags for newer models (like the K-3 III) and fixing tags that were already supported by ExifTool but not properly decoded for models like the K-Sx, K-70 and KP.

With the Pentax additions to ExifTool versions 13.30 to 13.34, Pentax metadata now supports visualization of:

The exact level of support depends on the camera model, as not all models support all features (e.g. face detection is not available on K-5 and even older models)

Here are some examples:

Pentax 1
K-3 III image taken with viewfinder, selected focusing area “Auto Area” (all 101 AF points) and “Subject Recognition” on.

Pentax 4
K-3 III image taken with viewfinder, “Zone Select” focus area (21 AF points) selected, AF-C and “Continuous” drive mode. Action settings and AF-C control settings (AF hold, focus sensitivity, point tracking) for the shot are listed in “Focus Information”.

Pentax 6
K-3 III image taken with viewfinder using “Expanded Area M” (5 selected AF points plus 60 peripheral AF points). The selected AF points are displayed in white, and the peripheral points are displayed in gray.

Pentax 5
K-3 III image taken with Live View using “Auto Area”

Pentax 2
K-3 III image taken with Live View using “Face Detection”. The K-3 III records two sets of face detection information. Since there is no way to decide which set has “better” information, both sets are displayed.

Pentax 3
K-3 III image taken with Live View using “Face Detection”. The K-3 III can detect up to 10 faces. Double images occur because two independent sets of face detection information are recorded. In this image, some faces are part of only one set. If more than 4 faces are detected in an image, the plugin will not display the eye information to avoid optical clutter.

Pentax 7
KP image taken with viewfinder using “Expanded Area (S)” (9 AF points). The AF point in focus is displayed in red, the selected AF points are displayed in white, and the remaining (inactive) AF points are displayed in gray.

Pentax 8
K-3 image taken with viewfinder using “Expanded Area (S)” (9 AF points). The AF point in focus is displayed in red, the selected AF points are displayed in white.

Pentax 9
K-01 image taken with viewfinder using “Multiple AF Points”.

Pentax 10
Support for Pentax DSLRs dates back to the *ist D models introduced in 2003. However, due to the established focus-and-pan method on older DSLRs with only a few AF points, the use of the plugin for these cameras will be limited.

3.9 Ricoh

Supported features:

MAC WIN Color Meaning
infocus infocus red1 Active AF point. Focus area, dimensions reported by the camera
face face yellow Face or eye detected by the camera in this area

1 AF point color can be chosen from red, green, blue in Viewing Options.

Starting with the GR III, Ricoh’s GR models use the same metadata structures as the latest Pentax models (K-3 III), so support for these cameras is a by-product of adding support for the K-3 III.

Examples:

Ricoh 1
Single focus point selected and used to focus the image.

Ricoh 2
Multiple focus points from “Auto Area” selection used to focus the image.

Ricoh 3
Detection of multiple faces and eyes.

3.10 Apple

Supported features:

MAC WIN Color Meaning
infocus infocus red1 Active AF point. Focus area, dimensions reported by the camera
face face yellow Face detected by the camera2 in this area

1 AF point color can be chosen from red, green, blue in Viewing Options.
2 Face detection is not done while the shot is being taken, but by Apple’s Photos app.

Apple maintains a very simple logic to store the focused subject areas in EXIF metadata. This hasn’t changed since early models (at least iPhone 5).

The makernotes section is rather short; older models do not even have an “Apple” section. Apart from the focus area, there is no relevant information to be displayed:

Apple 2

For modern Apple devices there are some interesting tags to extend the Shooting information section. However, the number of AF-relevant tags is limited. ExifTool can decode tags like AFPerformance, AFMeasuredDepth or AFConfidence, but their meaning is not documented and therefore the associated values are meaningless.

Apple 1

Face detection for an image exported from Apple Photos:

Apple 3


4 Special Topics

How to use a keyboard shortcut to run the plugin

Although the plugin supports multi-image operation by selecting multiple images in Lightroom before launching the plugin, it can be tedious to navigate Lightroom’s menu structure each time you want to use the plugin. How much more convenient would it be to launch the plugin with the press of a button?

Unfortunately, there is no solution to this problem within Lightroom. Plugins like Any Shortcut or Keyboard Tamer are limited to assigning custom shortcuts to commands that are part of the predefined, static portion of Lightroom’s menus. They do not support assigning shortcuts to commands (menu items) that are part of the menus that Lightroom dynamically creates and maintains based on user-defined additions to Lightroom (e.g. Plug-in Extras, Edit in, Export with Preset). The Focus-Points plugin is one such user-defined extension.

However, at the system level, there are ways to automate the startup of the plugin.

Windows

On Windows, you can use the free AutoHotkey utility together with a small script to assign the command File → Plug-in Extras → Show Focus Point to a key. The same applies to Show Metadata.

The plugin comes with a ready-to-run, compiled Autohotkey script that assigns:
- NumPad * as a shortcut for Show Focus Point
- NumPad / as a shortcut for Show Metadata

The FocusPointsHotkey.exe file (for the English UI) can be found in the ahk folder of the focuspoints.lrplugin file. If you use the German language UI in Lightroom, use FocusPointsHotkey_de.exe instead.

Note: If you are using a perpetual licence version of Lightroom Classic (Lightroom 5 or 6), rather than the subscription version, then you need to select FocusPointsHotkey_LR.exe (or FocusPointsHotkey_LR_de for German UI) from the ahk folder. Separate versions are necessary because the application window title that triggers the keyboard shortcut can differ between LR5/6 and LrC.

To activate the two shortcuts, run the executable file and also drag it to your Windows Startup folder, so that the shortcuts are automatically available each time you start Windows. A greenicon in the system tray indicates that the script is active.

You can use FocusPointsHotkey.ahk (or the corresponding .ahk file for your setup) as a starting point to create your own shortcuts:

  1. Download AutoHotKeys V2 from https://www.autohotkey.com/ and install it on your system.

  2. Open the script file FocusPointsHotkey.ahk in a text editor.

  3. To define different shortcut keys, you have to replace NumpadMult and NumpadDiv by whatever suits you.
    See Hotkeys and List of Keys for hotkey syntax.
    E.g. if you want to assign the two plugin functions to Win-F and Win-M you have to replace NumpadMult by #f and NumpadDiv by #m. If you prefer a Ctrl-Shift combination instead of Win the hotkey names are ^+f and ^+m.
    Save your changes to the file.

  4. Double-click FocusPointsHotkey.ahk to run the script. In case you didn’t introduce any errors, a greenicon in the system tray indicates that the script is active.

  5. To make the shortcuts available permanently, place FocusPointsHotkey.ahk in your Windows Startup folder.

Please note:

macOS

On macOS, you can use the system-wide feature in

System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → App Shortcuts

to assign your own shortcut to almost any menu item in any app. Here’s how you can do it for a Lightroom plugin to be added:

Example for:
- F12 as a shortcut for Show Focus Point
- F11 as a shortcut for Show Metadata

Note: NumPad * and NumPad / may not work because macOS sometimes treats NumPad symbols (* / + -) the same as the normal keyboard symbols, so for this example we will use function keys.

Steps:

  1. Go to Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → App Shortcuts.
  2. Click +.
    • Application: Adobe Lightroom Classic
    • Menu Title: “   Show Focus Point” (with 3 spaces before the actual text!)
    • Keyboard Shortcut: Press F12 (or your desired shortcut)
  3. Repeat 2. for Show Metadata and F11.
  4. Restart Lightroom Classic if the shortcuts don’t show immediately.

Note:
Of course, you can use any other keys you like. Just note, that if you assign the same shortcut to two different items, macOS picks one unpredictably.

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