Once the focus chart is up, set up the camera on your tripod and make sure that the camera is placed parallel to the focus chart.

You want the focus chart to be right across from the camera, so do not hang it too high or too low.

Pick a spot on your wall where you will hang the focus chart.

The setup process is pretty straightforward, as explained in detail below:

Scotch tape or some other adhesive material to keep the focus chart on the wall.

Make sure to print on regular paper, not anything glossy like photo paper. You can print it on a laser printer or inkjet (doesn’t really matter).

Print out either this Siemens Star Focus Chart or this Focus Test Chart on regular letter size paper.

For example, your garage door or a wall inside your home that is adjacent to a very large window will do fine.

A flat vertical surface in a very brightly lit area.

At least one lens, but preferably 2-3 lenses if you want to isolate the problem to the camera or your lenses.

Any DSLR with Live View mode capability.

The controls adjust the colors and number of spokes displayed in the chart.For this test, you will need the following:

Execute the second cell below to create the desired chart interactively.

Do this by clicking in the cell to highlight it, then entering 'shift-return' from the keyboard, or clicking on the run button in the toolbar menu (looks like >|), or the 'Cell>Run Cells' menu item.

First run the code in the following cell.

To use the notebook after it has been loaded in an executable environment:

There may be a longish pause as the notebook loads. An executable version of this notebook is available from the by clicking on the following button. This is a Jupyter notebook containing Python functions. The idea for this notebook was motivated by this post on a forum at Digital Photography Review (DPReview). This notebook produces a Siemens Star test chart in the form in [Scalable Vector Graphics (svg)[( ) that can be rendered by most modern web browsers. The Siemens Star is a radial starburst pattern commonly used to adjust internal focus settings in camera lens and for measuring camera resolution.

Siemens star pdf