Macro focussing issues

[crockny]

Hi - I am new to the Canon Macro 100mm lens and have a few questions. Here's my best effort at shooting my orchid:



Camera Canon EOS 7D
Exposure 30
Aperture f/22.0
Focal Length 100 mm
ISO Speed 100

I eventually switched to f/32 but it didn't seem to be any sharper. I'm on a tripod and using a cable release. Strictly ghetto lighting. I don't seem to know where the focal point is to get the whole thing in focus - if I focus on the points at the end of the lip the rest is not in focus and if I focus into the middle the pointy ends aren't entirely in focus ... is this something you learn by trial and error or is there a method to the madness????

[mrteacherdude]

Disclaimer first: I don't have much of what I would call real experience with macro even though I play a lot with reverse mount lenses to get nearly 1:1 and greater than 1:1 ratios.

That being said, I'm going to guess that one thing you are struggling with here is that the depth of your flower simply exceeds your DOF, even though your aperture is quite small. A change in angle or perspective may help you capture the entire flower. Moving to your right (I think) a little and maybe even downward (your POV) may help place the inside and outer portions of the flower on a more similar plane.

Another thought is lighting. I noticed that your exposure is quite long. I'm guessing the reason for this is you were trying to compensate for the lack of light coming through the small aperture. I don't remember if you said you have one of these or not, but if you use a speedlight (such as the 430EX), you can trigger it with your camera. That way you can dump a lot of light onto your subject. I've noticed that my macro shots are much better since I started doing this. Even though my DOF hasn't really changed, sometimes it seems like it has because parts of the subject that were not getting enough light before and thus were underexposed, are now getting enough light to expose and appear sharp. I just hold my speedlight at different angles, distances, power settings, etc, and shoot. Not a lot of them come out the way I want, but I'm getting better I think. Incidentally, I have a diffuser on the speedlight as the bare light is pretty harsh.

The people that get really sharp, deep photos with macro often employ a system of focus stacking; I've seen some really amazing macro photos that were composed of 20 or more photos stacked together into a single image. I think how they typically do this is to have their camera mounted to a focus rail so they can make very minute adjustments to the position of the camera relative to the subject. I think of this as being exactly the same concept as looking through a high power microscope and focusing up and down through a specimen that has depth to get a clear peek at the different layers. The difference is that you are shooting images of each of those layers and then combining them.

Hope there is something useful here for you...

[OsmosisStudios]

Focus stacking.

Set the lens to f/8 or so, focus on the front-most portion. Take one shot. Adjust focus MINUTELY (tiny tiny amounts) and take another, and so on and so on. You'll end up with probably around 15-20 images. Use software (photoshop CS has it built in) and stack the images.

[i speak in math]

I took the liberty (i hope you don't mind, because it was bugging the crap outta me) of color correcting for the nasty tungsten light you were shooting in as well as the massive underexposure present. I also sharpened with a high pass (at rad 5, opacity 50%) filter to clean it up a bit. Looks pretty good and about as in focus as you can get in the macro focus range.

[crockny]

i speak in math: Well, the exposure and sharpening look better but the color is way off now -- I hope to get a flash working off camera soon to help with some of these issues. Thanks everyone for your comments and suggestions.

[i speak in math]

Originally Posted by crockny

i speak in math: Well, the exposure and sharpening look better but the color is way off now -- I hope to get a flash working off camera soon to help with some of these issues. Thanks everyone for your comments and suggestions.

Is it not supposed to be white with pink spots on the large pedals, yellow in the middle?

[crockny]

It's not pink - more magenta or maroon -- it's way too vivid now. Anyway, you can take it down now, I understand your point ... thanks.