Those of us who have shot for a long time know how to handle our DOF scales. But alas many lenses come without scales and the knowledge of how to work with it is often lacking.
These days I have a young lady working under me for shooting our transmission parts. She knows her way around Photoshop very well so I didn't have to train her on that end. But her camera skills still require some development. So to compensate for her lack in that area I've created a mechanical solution to the DOF issue. It's a simple process to manage DOF 1 set a spot on the light table and focus there. 2 The camera is (almost) always set at a specific angle for a proper perspective on the parts. 3 If one is unsure about the available DOF, put down the guide and shoot a test shot. 4 If there's not enough DOF (we're always at f/16), adjust the camera distance and re-shoot. 4.1 Only the distance-to-subjects changes as the camera angle remains the same. Hence further back means the camera is raised higher to maintain perspective. Here is the solution shot at 3 ft. from subject near-center at f/16, using the A50/2.8 macro on a K30. http://www.flickr.com/photos/55001392@N08/9091785927/ ("near-center" because the point of focus is never the center of the DOF. Point of focus is at about 1/3 of the DOF into the object.) A PDF of the page is available on request. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
