Early Spring Shot.....is it on?

[OK_to_Point]

I bought some Kenko extension tubes and have been shooting this afternoon. This is a shot of a hyacinth. My question is....is it sharp enough? I shot at f/20 to try to increase the dof. New at shooting macro so any help would be greatly appreciated.....just ignore the red spots, it's red mulch.



0.005 sec (1/200)
f/20.0
92 mm
ISO 400
31mm and 13mm tubes were used.....I used the 70-300 lens too
Need more info, just let me know......

[Thunder_o_b]

Good choose in getting Kenco.

At f20 you are well in the area of lens diffraction. I generally stay at f11 for less than 1:1 and do not go over f16 in greater than 1:1 macro
Diffraction Limited Photography: Pixel Size, Aperture and Airy Disks

Your flash has burned out the shot. What are you using? If it is a pop-up, the only thing you can do is put a diffuser over it, but that will not help with the direction and strength of the shadows. If you are using a hotshot flash, mounting it in a bracket with a diffuser will solve more of your lighting problems, as will as dialing in the power settings.

You can't ignore anything in a photo.

The only way to increase the DOF in macro with out degrading the image (and it is all about the image) is to photo stack, this would be a prime candidate for that processes.

[OK_to_Point]

Thanks for replying.....I used my Speedlite 270ex on a flash cord for extra light. The bad thing is this flash can't be dialed down. It has to be done thru the camera and something I need to learn today. I plan to try again today.

So, f/20 is too much.....I will try a larger aperture. I have a diffuser for the flash too. It will be on the next time. I'm not sure what you mean by "photo stack"....is that HDR? I have done HDR and I 'm going to try using a small tripod and getting several shots at different exposures.

Thanks for the tips....hopefull I can get another photo online today

[Thunder_o_b]

Originally Posted by OK_to_Point

Thanks for replying.....I used my Speedlite 270ex on a flash cord for extra light. The bad thing is this flash can't be dialed down. It has to be done thru the camera and something I need to learn today. I plan to try again today.

So, f/20 is too much.....I will try a larger aperture. I have a diffuser for the flash too. It will be on the next time. I'm not sure what you mean by "photo stack"....is that HDR? I have done HDR and I 'm going to try using a small tripod and getting several shots at different exposures.

Thanks for the tips....hopefull I can get another photo online today

Yeah, for the flash you have you can use denser diffusing material in steps i.e. tracing paper, tissue paper, paper towel etc. until you get the result you are looking for.

Photo stacking is the process of taking multiple shots, changing the focus slightly with each shot, then running them through a stacking program.(This is the one that I use, there are others out there.Zerene Stacker -- The Basics) This program knows what is in focus and what is not, keeping that which is in focus giving you as much DOF as you want. BUT, you must have no movement in the subject or the camera.

This shot was one of the first 10x shots from my microscope objective and the stacking program. There were many, many shots taken to get this shot.

[OK_to_Point]

I didn't have any more luck trying to get a sharp image today. I tried different combinations of the tubes, different lenses, different av and shutter speed. Every image just doesn't seem to be as sharp as I would like. Not even a small piece of the image. A bit frustrated. Think it's time to let it rest a bit....thanks for your help.....

[Thunder_o_b]

Originally Posted by OK_to_Point

I didn't have any more luck trying to get a sharp image today. I tried different combinations of the tubes, different lenses, different av and shutter speed. Every image just doesn't seem to be as sharp as I would like. Not even a small piece of the image. A bit frustrated. Think it's time to let it rest a bit....thanks for your help.....

Try your 50mm with the tubes, that is a nice sharp lens. Zooms that are not L's are soft compared to primes.

Give these settings a try with your 50mm, the tubes and flash. iso 200, shutter 1/250, f 11
Do not use AF, switch to manual and pre focus, then rock though the focus point and take the shot on the way back.

See if that works better for you.

[Jezta]

Try your 50mm with the tubes, that is a nice sharp lens. Zooms that are not L's are soft compared to primes.

Spot on advice, that; although I'm a Nikon user, I too have a Nikon 50mm prime and a Sigma 70-300 in my bag of lenses. Mine both have manual aperture control, which is cool because I use super-cheap extension tubes which have no electronics. Anyway, that's by the by...

Definitely use the 50mm prime instead of the 70-300; the resulting image is likely to be significantly crisper. A while back I was comparing the results of both of mine, and the 50mm outperformed the 70-300 in every way. That and the whole shooting match was a lot lighter and less cumbersome to wield