tscali

I'm trying to learn the art of a taking a sharp picture by using a flower. Notice the core around the center is not sharp. I've tried adjusting my aperture from 4.0 (lowest possible) to 8.0 with little change. I'm using a very good tripod and a remote trigger. Is it the color, the light, I really do not know. I've played with Nikon Capture and was not able to improve it. I'm using a Nikon D750 with a 24 - 120mm f/4.0 lens. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Test Subject

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Bill_de Loc: US

When taking close ups, you are working with a shallow depth of field.

Since you are on a tripod, try your smallest aperture (highest number) for maximum DOF. For lack of any definitive values I'll use the term 'acceptable sharpness'. The acceptable sharpness extends twice as far behind your focus point as in front. Use that to determine where you focus.

If your camera has a depth of field preview button, use it. At a small aperture the viewfinder will be pretty dark. You may have to turn some extra lights on just for viewing.

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A little more involved, is taking multiple images at different focus points and then merge the images.

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kavner58 Loc: Portland, Oregon

I would increase your f/# to f/11 or even f/16, reduce ISO, increase exposure time. Your depth of field needs to be more than 2-3", this is what you have now.

-AK

juicesqueezer Loc: Okeechobee, Florida

In your camera properties, check and see if you have checked or marked release only and not focus release. Looks to me like the whole flower is out of focus. You may be too close and it is still taking the photo without focusing properly. Just a thought! Oh, and being in focus has nothing to do with color.
If you have focus release marked, then there are other possibilities to consider, but I'm willing to bet that is the problem.

orrie smith Loc: Kansas

manual focus or auto focus, try both

tscali

Thanks guys. Again I'm trying to learn and not challenge your responses. I initially used an open aperture, 4.0, because I wanted to blur out the background. I decreased it to 8.0 to increase depth of field, hoping to clear up the image. The point that I did not consider was to reduce the ISO to 100 and since I was on a tripod, I really should not care how long the shutter was open. But going to f/22 defeats one of my objectives: to blur out the background. Is this a case of you can't have both and you need to choose what is more important? Again thanks for any help.

dirtpusher Loc: tulsa oklahoma

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

This may sound pedantic, but for starters: sharpness and DOF are not the same thing. All things considered, stopping down, will increase your depth of field or correctly put, the parts of the flower that reasonably 'in focus"; Doing this, will actually decrease the sharpness due to a condition known as "small aperture diffraction….

But back to your goal: getting more of the flower in focus. One of the factors with DOF is minimum working distance-- or how close the lens is to the daffodil. The difference in DOF between f/8 & f/16 shrinks as you move closer to the flower. So while I would stop down to f/11, I would also increase my working distance….

There is another way: focus stacking. With FS, you make a series of exposures moving incrementally closer to flower without altering your focus point. You then combine, or stack these images using software.

I have attached a close-up of a lily I photographed using this technique. I chose not to continue to the bottom of the flower--but the distance from tip of stamen to where the DOF falls off is roughly equal to your daffodil. My aperture choice here was f/5.6

Lily stacked

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PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

You are on the right track. Tripod and remote release. It apprears to me the entire flower is out of focus. Is it possible you focused the zoom moved. They do shift. To improve sharpness in a flower you need to us like F16 oF22 as an F stop. Focus approx 1/3 down the flower in MANUAL focus mode and the flower should be sharp. to

Dick Z. Loc: Downers Grove IL

Are you using manual focus, if not try that.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Yes, it's. gonna be hard to get both.
But as a few have said, you can control both with stacking. Shooting as many layers as it takes to get the whole flower sharp, then the last layer would be the oof backround, thus achieving exactly what you want. But you need at a minimum something like PS to do the Stack. Good luck. ;-)
SS

Harvey Loc: Pioneer, CA

I was quite upset with my lack of progress in close-up and macro photography till I settled down and found how simple photo staking is and how it does all the things you are trying to produce.
All these fellows have been saying take photos and stack the layers with out explaining the method and tools one needs.
#1 is a GOOD steady tripod
#2 is a macro/close up 2 direction rail ( you need this to move your camera a mm at a time when taking photos to stack)
#3 a PP program that will align, blend & flatten these layers into a crisp , sharp image. I have CS4 and it has a wonderful automatic system for that.

Both the UHH's forums of Macro and Close up have fantastic tutorials and info on this.
Good luck and post your results in the Close up forum

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

You are shooting at a distance of 0.45 meters. Lets call it 1.5 feet. The posted image was shot at f/6.3 and 120mm. Here is a very nice DOF calculator that will show what you need to know:

http://www.tawbaware.com/maxlyons/calc.htm

The DOF for that shot was 0.2", and it is exactly equal in front of and behind the focus point. Your flower is obviously not fitting into the DOF. So take a look at the DOF if you shoot at f/22: 0.6". Still not enough! And that is as far as that lens will stop down.

Unless you can do focus stacking with several shots combined to make one image, there isn't much you can do with that specific setup. A macro lens that can be set to f/32 would only be of a small help. For example a 105mm macro lens would have to be set for a distance of 1.3 feet rather than 1.5, to get the same magnification, and at f/32 would have a DOF of 0.8". Not much more for a flower that is probably 2 inches deep.

Other things to know are that turning VR off will help. And focus bracketing, to get the focus plane right in the middle of the nearest and farthest parts of the flower is a good idea.

If you are in a calm location with where the flower is not moving you can slow the shutter speed down. It would be best to get the ISO down to at least 2000 or so. That means shooting with shutter speeds at 1/4 second or even less. A better option is to add light! Get an off camera flash and use a small diffuser.

tdekany Loc: Oregon

ISO 2000? What are you smoking up there in Alaska?

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Harvey, I agree with you, BUT, he definately does not need the macro lens or the focus rail! A good tripod...., yes. But that flower is pretty big. Any std. Lens including what he is using will do the stack he needs.
For a fly, yes...., for a flower, no!! Just my opinion as to how I would do that! ;-)
SS