To me his lighting looks fine and even, through clearly dim indoors (f/1.4, 1/400).
The problem is his meter is exposing for zone 5 and we want zone 7 or 8 on that paper.

Nikon's matrix meter is great, but fill the frame with white which isn't blindingly bright (sand / snow) and it still seems to act just like a center meter.

Try doing the test in better lighting too.

Thank you, iDunno. I'll give that chart a try.

However, the line that I found to be most in focus wasn't in the camera's auto focus bracket in my shots (despite the fact that it shows as within the active focus bracket in Capture NX2).

You're not testing it correctly, sicne the AF will focus on anything within the brackets.
Try using this:
http://focustestchart.com/focus10.pdf

Ah. Fixed. Thanks.

The below photos are 2 tripod-mounted shots that I took of to test my front-focusing theory with another document. I was focusing on the "a" in the phrase "any blurring" (third line down in the second-to-last paragraph). To me, the last line in that paragraph seems to be the most sharp in both images.

While both of these shots are with a 50 f/1.4G at f/1.4, the same issue arose with a 35 f/2 at f.2. I think it clearly shows a front focus problem.

Photo is marked "private" on Flickr

Hi All, Hoping I could ask your help. Just took some shots of a focus chart, after having consistent front focusing issues in wide open close ups (tried it with a tripod and do have good technique...I think).

After shooting the chart, I'm thinking my D90 is rear focusing. Now, I'm pretty confused.

However, my wife noticed front focusing in my "real-life" shots before hearing my paranoia, so I am figuring something must be up. Wondering what your thoughts on interpreting this chart?