On Wed, Jan 1, 2014 at 7:20 PM, steve harley <[email protected]> wrote: > on 2014-01-01 15:11 Aahz Maruch wrote >> >> Sharpness of what?Like you, I'm into macro photography, which I >> >> usually refer to as flower porn. I often find it difficult to decide >> which part of the flower should be in focus (I usually shoot wide open). > > > that is one of the big challenges of plant macros - where to put the focus — > and i do often experiment with different choices, thinking it will be easier > to choose my favorite on a big screen than in the view finder > > but for me wide open (which is f/2.8 on the lens i use) rarely feels right; > i usually want an image that has some perspective, and the different parts > of a plant are rarely in the same plane; i usually shoot f/8 or higher, and > even that can be frustrating; i have tried a bit of focus stacking, but to > do best at that i think i'd need a focus-rail, and plants that sit still; > i'm starting to think the answer may be to use flash & f/22
Yup! Many of my most satisfactory flower/plant shots are still-lifes of cuttings shot on a tabletop with softboxes and other modifiers -- ie lots of light. I have a Panavise that I use to hold the victim at the right angle, and construction paper to use as a backdrop or seamless. Out in the garden, I long ago gave up trying to shoot flowers wide-open, especially deep ones like daylilies. Those require F8 or smaller, and sometimes flash fill too. -- -bmw -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
