Improving Depth of Field

[St. Phatty]

I'm using a Canon T3. It's a DSLR with about 12 Megapixel resolution.


BUT I'm having trouble taking shots that show "all the trikes".

For example, this pic of a Sage & Sour nugg. (Sage & Sour is from TH Seeds.)

She has the trikes but they only show up clearly if they're the right distance from the camera, about 6 inches.

I'm trying the various modes this camera has, even RTFM.


I see all these pics where every trike seems to be in focus, and I wonder, how did they do that ?

2 things I can think of -
* use more light, for example shoot in direct sunlight. These pics were shot in the shade, while the sun was still up.
* put the camera on a tripod - though I'm pretty sure many of the great pics on the "Frostiest Bud" thread were taken without tripods.


The advice I got was "Buy a DSLR".

So, I bought a DSLR.

Anyway, here's the pics.

 

[stoned-trout]

bump...no help but I too am learning.. I got a Nikon d70s...my guess would be messing with the f stop settings..i am not a pro photographer ,I don't even pretend to be one on the net lol...just a stoner with a Nikon and 5 lenses....

 

[St. Phatty]

bump...no help but I too am learning.. I got a Nikon d70s...my guess would be messing with the f stop settings..i am not a pro photographer ,I don't even pretend to be one on the net lol...just a stoner with a Nikon and 5 lenses....

Are the lenses for taking pictures of Cannabis ?


What I might need to do -
RTFM,A -- read the fvcking manual, again.


I would like to be able to videotape at a distance of about 1/4 mile, specifically to record instances of police brutality. Separate subject.


My Canon Rebel has all these settings and knobs an dials.

Just this morning I was checking out the auto and manual focus settings. I've had it on auto.

But I'd be real happy just to get some decent depth-of-field on my cannabis pics.

 

[budelight]

Hi st P,

You will want to start by turning your camera to aperture priority mode. Also, do not zoom when taking close ups, it extends the lenses and gives you LESS depth of field.

Do some searching on photo stacking (merging multiple photos with different focus points)

I'll find a few links to help and update this post.

EDIT:
[YOUTUBEIF]F8T94sdiNjc[/YOUTUBEIF]

Oh yeah look into buying or making a ring flash like this one: Polaroid Macro LED Ring Flash & Light - $39.95 with prime

I built my own ring flash that is powered by a 9v battery for aprox: $10
Used of a Tulip Lens Hood

and added this to it:

Here is some extra lighting tips: http://www.nikonusa.com/en/Learn-An...steps-to-lighting-magic-with-joe-mcnally.html

Budelight

 

[Bud Green]

All my experience was with an old single lens reflex camera using film, but for what you want, it should be the same..

For greater depth of field (meaning everything is in focus) use the highest f-stop number you have on your camera. The highest number is acually the smallest opening to allow light in your lens...On my old SLR camera, this was 16.. Doing this will mean that you will be shooting at a slower speed so a tripod may be necessary.. Your entire depth of field should be clear...Good luck..

 

[HunterJ]

I'm not a pro either but you don't have to be. An understanding of the technicalities is useful - http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/depth-of-field.htm - is a good start.

The following is my simplified, non pro version. I trust someone can follow it.

Basically, dof is limited by magnification and aperture - the higher the mags and the bigger the aperture (lower f#), the shallower the dof. The other way round; the lower the mags and the smaller (higher f#) the aperture the deeper the dof. So there's no way to get 'more' dof, it's fixed by the physics, AFAIK - David Attenborough has been doing 'other' things with dof recently.

If you want 'the appearance' of more dof the way to go is lower mags and higher f# with fast enough shutter speed under diffused flash on a stable platform. Lower mags (zoom out) and higher f# (say f14/16) allows you to crop the image (if it's high resolution/IQ) so you are left with only the part you want. Flash allows the use of faster shutter (around 1/160 should be ok) speed combined with higher f# which tends to exclude ambient light - will give you black background if there's nothing behind object being photographed and will stop any motion (for sharpness of image) of object or camera. The stable platform for cam and object is so slower shutter speeds can be used - to include ambient light = color in background. But flash sharpens the image either way, best if diffused so brighter spots retain some detail.

The way to 'use' shallow dof, for the 'appearance' of deep dof, is to align the surface of object with the plane of the sensor so both are parallel and as much of what you want in focus sits within the field (as in depth of 'field') of focus. The sensor is aligned in the cam to receive image data through the lens and the field of focus is in front and aligned to it, whatever direction the cam/sensor is pointed there is the field of focus parallel and at a relative distance, of a certain depth.

* In both pix above dof is shallow and neither objects are aligned for optimal use of available dof. Probably taken with wide (low f#) aperture too. To fix you would use a higher f#/f14 or f16 and move bud/object around until you have more of it's surface in focus at same time. Both flash and higher shutter speed have motion stopping effect.

BTW, sunlight is not best for various reasons, and you don't need a tripod as the bud isn't gong anywhere. Unless you want to stack images, an other ball game.

** A macro lens is usually best for high mag shots but other lenses often come with a macro feature and work just as well. Higher mags can also be had with the use of a screw on achromat/macro filter (you get what you pay for) and work best on longer focal length lenses as they only magnify what's already there.

*** Working distance, the distance from cam/sensor at which focus can be attained, is usually within a short range at high mags and is more or less fixed with the use of macro filters and varies according to magnification.

@St. Phatty There's a dedicated Canon Rebel forum - http://www.dpreview.com/forums/1031 - you might be interested in.

@stoned-trout There's one for the Nikon D70 - http://www.dpreview.com/forums/1034

For questions on macro work go here - http://www.dpreview.com/forums/1054 or here - http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/board/45