Need tips on focusing

[Stryker]

I love taking close up photos of flowers and to a lesser extent, insects. Since my 18-135 Nikkor wasn't helping me too much in this regard, I bought a new Tamron 90mm Macro for my Nikon D40. Unfortunately, this lens doesn't autofocus with my camera and I am having big trouble judging the focus manually. I invariably get it slightly out of focus and end up getting fuzzy shots.

I am now using the method of taking three or four or more photos of the same subject and keeping the best out of them, but almost impossible to do when shooting insects.

For example, take a look at this one of an ant:



Is there anything I am doing wrong? I checked the diopter adjustment and it seems OK. I have also seen posts here and elsewhere stating that a tripod is nearly useless when photographing insects and I don't use one myself. I guess I will get the hang of it as I use the lens more, but if there is anything obvious that I am missing, please advise me.

My second question is about how to get more of the view in focus. Using f/stops of 12 or higher doesn't seem to work, especially in natural light. I have seen most macro photos of flowers have almost all the flower in sharp focus, whereas most of mine tend to turn out like this:



OK, this flower was only 5 to 7 mm across but I would still like to have more of it in focus than is seen in the photo above. Any suggestions would be welcome.

[Major_Small]

If you want a larger DoF, stop using a macro lens

Short DoF is almost a defining characteristic of shooting macro, and that means if you're manually focusing, you have to be spot on. As you can see, even at f/10, your DoF ends up being shorter than the length of an ant.

As for focusing, just practice. Get a normal lens on the camera, and go around to random things around you and focus on them as fast as you can. I personally find that focusing through something and firing the shutter as I pass through perfect focus is the fastest way to do it, but you get one good shot that way. Taking the time to dial it in and keep it there will let you take advantage of things like motor drive.

Also, don't forget you can move your camera/body to adjust focus as well.

[Stryker]

Hey thanks Major_Small. Yeah, I guess an over reliance on auto focus has taken away what little skills I had of focusing a camera. I have actually not used the manual focus on my Nikkor 18-135mm lens at all, so it is like learning everything all over again with the Tamron 90mm. Maybe I should start taking all my photos on manual to get more used it.

About your comment on not using the macro lens, I am yet to figure out how these great photos you see here and elsewhere manage to get so much into focus with a macro lens, while I seem to have a razor sharp plane of focus (which I invariably miss ). I will certainly try the trick you suggested about firing the shutter while passing through the best focus, instead of trying to get and hold the best focus first. That should help me get oriented better.

[Johnsohk]

I am using the Nikon105 mm Macro VR and I use it in manual focus mode...with flash! Aperture priority set at f22 at least and then get the exposure right by adding + stops and + flash, diffused with a Stoffen and you can get better DoF and a sharp shot too helped by the flash..and all hand held. Of course there are limitations to what you can do with flowers and you cannot expect to get huge DoF with a Macro lens when the plane of the subject includes the head and stem of maybe several inches. That is when you need a tripod and ring flash etc etc etc.
John H

[PhotoNewt]

To illustrate the points made above these were taken with a Macro lens at close distance at different apertures. Focus, exposure and white balance were all manual.


EF-S 60mm Macro, f/11


EF-S 60mm Macro, f/22

At any given aperture, the closer you get to the subject the greater the magnification and the smaller the DoF. Using apertures f/16 and above becomes important to get more of the subject your focus.

[inkista]

If you want more DoF, you can stop the lens way down and add light with a flash, use a tilt-shift lens on extension tubes, or use software and multiple images focused at different points to focus stack.

Focusing with a macro lens is hard. Most of the time, focus is set by varying your distance to the subject. You can also try using the autofocus confirm, if you think the AF is going to be more accurate than your eyes through the viewscreen. Basically, half-press the shutter button, and turn the focus ring on the lens, and when you hit the point the AF system would use, one of your AF points will light up. (I think it's green on the Nikons. It's red on my XT).

[janef]

Hi

I had the same problem as you are. With the macro lens - mine's 100mm - some of the flower would be out of focus, and it was really starting to annoy me. It wasn't until I was chatting to someone who suggested using my standard lens, in this case a Canon EF 17-40mm zoom to take the shot. What a difference, as it enabled me to take the same shot but with the whole bloom in focus, without losing any of the detail. It does mean though getting quite close, but that's no big deal. In these instances I do use a tripod, and a remote shutter - as I'm still trying not to wobble the camera

I've attached a shot I've done using this lens just to show you what I'm talking about.

I'm no expert, but i'm sure someone will explain in my case why this works!

[lputman]

Jane your shot is beautiful.

[lputman]

Originally Posted by PhotoNewt

EF-S 60mm Macro, f/11


EF-S 60mm Macro, f/22

These are really nice PhotoNewt, so delicate and you've captured that well. They remind me of the tissue paper flowers I made as a child in elementary school.

[Stryker]

Thanks to everyone for the various tips you have provided. I haven't yet got the opportunity to put them in practice (work, work ...) but I will definitely do it this weekend and post the results here.

Originally Posted by Johnsohk

I am using the Nikon105 mm Macro VR and I use it in manual focus mode...with flash!

I don't have an external flash at the moment and I guess the built-in flash is not good for macro work as the lens barrel itself gets in the way of the light. I don't want to invest in a separate flash unit until I get everything else working to my satisfaction, because I feel that just adding equipment will not help me take good photos although they will certainly make the job easier.

Originally Posted by PhotoNewt

At any given aperture, the closer you get to the subject the greater the magnification and the smaller the DoF. Using apertures f/16 and above becomes important to get more of the subject your focus.

I did experiment with apertures of f/16 or higher but doing this with natural light has been the drawback. The photos tend to turn out darker than expected and editing the images do not always work out very well. But I agree that f/16 or higher is the way to go if I want greater DoF.

Originally Posted by janef

It wasn't until I was chatting to someone who suggested using my standard lens, in this case a Canon EF 17-40mm zoom to take the shot.

Here is one (cropped and resized for Flickr) I took with the 18-135mm AF lens, with auto-focus and not manual:



It is reasonably OK, so as you say the standard zoom lens do work but they lack the effect of a close up shot of a true macro lens. This was with f/7.1, 1/800 sec at ISO-400, everything set by the camera in "P" mode.