Close up, big depth of field ...

duddridge

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7 Aug 2010 - 9:23 PM

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I have been asked to take photos of a model railway. This is going to mean working in a shed, picking out detail in the layout and having a large DoF. I will not be using flash. I've experimented with a Sigma 28-70 f2.8 (on a Nikon D80) on a tripod with shutter speed of around 6s at f25 but still can't get a good DoF. Any advice? Many thanks in advance.

Paul Morgan (Challenge Team)

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7 Aug 2010 - 9:41 PM

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Go wide.

spaceman

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8 Aug 2010 - 1:52 AM

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But a wide lens, especially an ultra-wide, could bring a lot of unwanted background into the frame.

Overread

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8 Aug 2010 - 3:09 AM

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Its time to learn about Focus Stacking

I (and other macro photographers) use this method to get more depth of field over a subject without having to use ultra small apertures (where diffraction will soften the end resulting shot) and to even get depths of field that are beyond a lenses abilty to nativly produce.

Gear and setup:
Idealy you should use the following type of setup:

1) A set of stable, good tripod legs.
2) A solid tripod head to control the lens and camera body. The ideal is a geared head (eg manfrotto junior geared head) for macro work though for the scale you are looking at most other head types should work ok (though try and avoid ballheads if you can, they tend to droop a little as you remove your hands from the setup).

3) A focusing rail that sits between the camera and the tripod head - either go for an expensive Novoflex focusing rail or head over to ebay and search for a "macro focusing rail" and you'll get a multitude of dealers selling a cheap, but very effective, set of rails that do both forward and side to side rail motions. These are better than some other options (eg the manfrotto focusing rail is a very poor option).

5) Lens + camera - specific settings are suited for your shot properties, though use mirror lockup -also for the work you are doing you might find that its prudent to use an aperture wider than f13 (so as to avoid diffraction softening) and you might find that very wide apertures let you get closer to the effect you want with the depth of field.

6) Remote release if you have one (otherwise use the built in timer on your camera body)

7) A lot of patience and a computer.


To work the setup first setup the camera onto the tripod and adjust things so that you have focus on the subject. Then (ideally using the focusing rail and not adjusting the focus at all) shift the viewfinder image (move the rail slider closer/further from the subject) to select the closest point of the subject that you want in focus - take the shot. Then without adjusting anything at all move the rail a little closer, shifting the depth of field down the subject, but whilst leaving a little overlap with the first shot - take the second shot. Repeat this process till you have aquired all the shots you need for the series.
Note you might want to use a wider aperture (smaller f number) for the first and last shots. This helps to make a slightly less artificial final shot.

Once you have all the shots bring them into the computer and edit them as a batch if you have shot in RAW - ensuring that each shot is adjusted to the exact same properties. Don't go to town on editing just yet, just get the shots to a presentable standard and then save each one as either a jpeg or a tiff (I prefer tiff overall even though the files are larger). Make sure to ensure that you save them in order with depth of field moving smoothly through the series of shots.
Once done you will need stacking software - unless you own a new copy of photoshop CS I would recommend using either Zerine stacker (you have to pay for this software) or the freeware CombineZP (the software I use currently). Combine ZP download page

The next part is a quick combine ZP workflow.

Open combine ZP and either read through or close the tutorial window that opens up. Then on the hovering control bar click the button second on the right to activate the menu controls. Then go to "file" "New" then in the new window select (in order) the shots that you want to use for the stack - you must select them in the right order for the software to work.
With the shots imported go to "macro" "Align and balance thorough" and wait for the software to finish. Once done go to "macro" "Do stack". If things go well you should now get a stacked photo generated that will have a deeper depth of field from all the combined images. Note that it does not always work and if one shot is in the wrong order it can fail. There are some other stack options below do stack that can give better results if you experiment around. The tutorial window also shows some other controls that you can use to review and reorder the frames that you imported to make the stack with should you think that one is affecting the end result or is in the wrong order.

Hopefully I've given you enough there to get started, if you want a bit more clarification do feel free to ask