What should I do now???

Ambrola

I have been practising with the whole set of Kenkos on for about 2 weeks. Shooting the screw, or whatever I can find at different Apetures, ISO, Shutter Speeds and so on. One thing I have realy noticed is that the focus points become very difficult at certain angles. If you shoot something from the side, not to bad, but head first, and everything changes. Is this the reason for the focus stacking?? I would assume that you get the head and then the body and move around as long as the insect stays still? Am I on the right road.
Also, the Kenkos do work in Auto focus, but I still don't like to use it, ever!! To get to the highest ratcio of magnification, manual it has to be?
Heres a couple of stemens I shoot a minute ago. They are very tiny. Can't get the yellow in focus??
http://<a href="http://s458.photobucket.com/albums/qq305/ambrola/?action=view&current=stem1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i458.photobucket.com/albums/qq305/ambrola/stem1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

http://<a href="http://s458.photobucket.com/albums/qq305/ambrola/?action=view&current=stem6.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i458.photobucket.com/albums/qq305/ambrola/stem6.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

GOLDENORFE

What should I do now??? Give up rofl

seriously, you can never get a good dof to show stamens and petals in focus without focus stacking. try a focus stack of just the stamens leaving the petals oof.
try placing flower on a table, then set up camera to take a series of frames untill all parts you require in focus have been shot, make sure you dont focus too far between each frame otherwise you will end up with oof bands in the finished image.
try combine czp free program - http://www.hadleyweb.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/CZP/Installation.htm

or a free trial of zerene stacker - http://zerenesystems.com/stacker/

phil

Ambrola

Thats what I will do.
Thanks,

Lord Vetinari

Yes DOF in macro is narrow and gets worse as you increase the magnification. You can often find shooting angles to get the parts of the subject you want in focus though. I always use MF for my macro shots, once you get used to it it more reliably gets the parts in focus you want.
Yes focus stacking is used to get more DOF but I wouldn't start using it until you can reliably get the shot focus you want in a single shot. Macro is all about practice - having confidence thay you have the technique and camera/lens knowledge to get the shot you want.

Brian V.