Focus by Bokeh (1 Viewer)

When you point a binocular at something that's not in focus, how can you tell which way to go without just hunting? You might remember at what distance you were last viewing, or judge by what else nearer or further is sharp. But what if you don't recall, and the whole field is about the same distance?

I've been paying attention to what photographers call "bokeh", the character of the out-of-focus image. OOF backgrounds tend to be smoothly blurred, while OOF foregrounds tend to be messier or less recognizable. So if you have a nice but soft view, it's likely behind the focus plane and you need to adjust toward infinity. If you have an uglier impression, it's probably nearer and you need to refocus closer. As an initial guess this seems to work pretty well. Should I have heard of the technique before somewhere? (Obviously it's more of an issue at higher powers with less depth of field.)

Tenex
When I focus instinctively I rarely move the focus wheel the wrong way so I am picking up clues from the view somehow. I noticed this and tried to analyse what the clues were but on the couple of times I have tried this my focusing skills went down the pan. A few days later, trying to grab a view of a disappearing hawk my instincts were back OK. I guess this is not much of an answer to your question except to confirm that there must be clues in the views.
Lee

"Clues in the views" sounds just right. Maybe this is one of the things we do instinctively, and shouldn't overthink. Having noticed, it seemed interesting to mention.