Sweating the Small Stuff

VespaFitz

In the past couple of months, I've learned that shooting small things can be just as big a pain as big stuff.

I had to shoot a few pictures for an upcoming issue of the magazine, and one of them was of a 1/18 scale Ford GT model. Geez, it was tough. I was having all kinds of problems with depth of field.



When I got the nose in focus, the rear wheel would get all fuzzy, and vice versa. See how the headlight is out of focus in the picture above?

Started messing around with the apeture priority on the camera and I ended up with some useable pics.

wxwax

Fitzy, were you shooting in Macro mode? That would explain the really shallow depth of field.

pathfinder

wxwax wrote:

Fitzy, were you shooting in Macro mode? That would explain the really shallow depth of field.

That is a complaint of mine also wxwax - You set the camera in the Macro mode and bingo a Large Aperature - Gives shorter exposure time - but VespaFitz was shooting still lifes -He needed MORE depth of field -- so stop down to f22 or f32 and let the shutter sort itself out on aperature preferred like he did. (This will require a good tripod of course!)

T&S lenses would be the only improvement he could make that comes to mind for more depth of field. Or increasing the lighting intensity substantially - but then you have to keep an eye out for new reflections.

wxwax

Thanks, 'finder. You made me go read up a little on Tilt and Shift lenses. I'm a moron at these sorts of things, so the fundamentals are lost on me. But at least I understand a little bit more than before.

DoctorIt

VespaFitz wrote:

I had to shoot a few pictures for an upcoming issue of the magazine, and one of them was of a 1/18 scale Ford GT model. Geez, it was tough. I was having all kinds of problems with depth of field.

Bah, just a model... when are you gonna get your paws on the real deal?