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Five mushroom shots taken last weekend at the 7th Annual Epping Meet, thought I would load them all at once save the boredom a bit!
I would like some feedback on the DoF and points of focus.
When you look through them you will see some are off at the back/front of the subject. This is something I do seem to be struggling with, they are shot at f13 (maybe not enough) on a tripod.
Comments and crits welcome please...Steve
| Camera: | Canon EOS 7D |
| Lens: | Sigma 105 Macro |
| Recording media: | JPEG (digital) |
| Title: | 5 Epping shrooms |
| Username: | 
steve_eb |
| Uploaded: | 5 Nov 2010 - 5:13 PM |
| Tags: | Close-up / macro, Down & dirty, Epping forest, Epping meet, Flowers & plants, Fungi, Mushrooms, Wet, Wildlife / nature |
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Unrated These stats show the percentage of wins and the rating score that your photo has achieved. You can go to the VS Mode by clicking on this icon. Signup to e2Signup to e2 to see which photo this has won or lost against in the vs mode |
| Votes: | 23 |
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Comments
F11 to f16 is as much as your ( or any ) macro lens should be set on for DOF. Over this and diffraction, which is a physics thing and not a lens fault, sets in. The sharpness of the image suffers and details become smeared. The DOF will be deeper at f22 and higher, but the degradation of the image makes these f-stops not worth the trade off.
If you want more DOF then either set the lens parallel to the axis of the subject ( the plane of focus being like a sheet of glass perpendicular to the axis of the lens ), or use the method of focus stacking.
Also you could try focusing just past the front of the cap as DOF extends in front of as well as behind the point of focus. Approximately a third in front and two thirds behind the point of focus.
To eliminate camera shake from the 'mirror slap', you should use a cable release and mirror lock-up. Alternatively you could use the self-timer and this will also eliminate camera shake.
I like the photos, v1 and v5 being my favourites.
Alan.
Thanks guys .... and big thanks to Paintman for the constructive help as requested, good to see it does still pay to request input.
I do use the timer & the tripod you have probably hit the nail on the head with the focus point (hence my question) as I felt this was my mistake. I have been focusing on the stalk which for small shrooms is ok but bigger ones not.
So again thanks Alan will try it out and hope for better results.
Steve
Just a small addendum to Alan's very helpful remarks: at the sort of subject distances found in macro work, the area of sharp focus is roughly 50/50 in front and behind of the point you're focused on. The one-third/two-thirds figure is widely quoted and appears in many books but is, essentially, a myth, not least because the distribution of the sharp region depends on focal length, aperture and subject distance.
At relatively close distances (even out to the sort of range you might be taking a portrait at), the distribution is roughly 50/50. At very large distances, you get focus to infinity behind the point of focus and only a finite amount in front, so it's effectively 0/100. Of course, there is a range of settings where the distribution is about one-third/two-thirds but that's pretty much the stopped clock being right twice a day.
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