A computing system implemented method for creating optimized images for data identification and extraction comprising the following, which when executed individually or collectively by any set of one or more processors perform a process including: generating a viewfinder screen display on a display screen of a display device; positioning the viewfinder screen display such that a source document is displayed in the viewfinder screen display; partitioning an image of the source document, as displayed in the viewfinder display screen, into two or more image blocks corresponding to different portions of the source document; for each image block of the source document, adjusting a focus setting of an image capture device to an optimized focus setting for the image block of the source document and causing the image capture device to capture an image block optimized image of the source document optimized for the image block of the source document; aggregating all of the image block optimized images of the source document; for each image block optimized image of the source document extracting image data representing the optimized source document image block; aggregating the extracted image data representing the optimized image blocks of the source document from each of the image block optimized images of the source document; using the aggregated extracted data representing the optimized image blocks of the source document to generate an optimized image of the source document, wherein said optimized image of the source document is a focus optimized image, an exposure optimized image, or an image capture parameter optimized image; and providing the optimized image of the source document to a data extraction engine for processing. generating a viewfinder screen display on a display screen of a display device; positioning the viewfinder screen display such that a source document is displayed in the viewfinder screen display; partitioning an image of the source document, as displayed in the viewfinder display screen, into two or more image blocks corresponding to different portions of the source document; for each image block of the source document, adjusting a focus setting of an image capture device to an optimized focus setting for the image block of the source document and causing the image capture device to capture an image block optimized image of the source document optimized for the image block of the source document; aggregating all of the image block optimized images of the source document; for each image block optimized image of the source document extracting image data representing the optimized source document image block; aggregating the extracted image data representing the optimized image blocks of the source document from each of the image block optimized images of the source document; using the aggregated extracted data representing the optimized image blocks of the source document to generate an optimized image of the source document, wherein said optimized image of the source document is a focus optimized image, an exposure optimized image, or an image capture parameter optimized image; and providing the optimized image of the source document to a data extraction engine for processing.