For your thoughts...

[Netskimmer]

I've been playing with my new extension tubes. Here are a few of a penny which to the naked eye looks shiny and clean. Under high magnification however, we see that this is not the case. The DoF is extremely thin and I only have a hand-held flashlight for lighting so they could definitely be better but it's a start.

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[Derrel]

I would take a piece of typing paper, cut a 1 inch wide, 1 inch long tab in the center of one end of it, then tape that tab to the camera's hot shoe, and then curl the rest of the paper around, in front of the pop-up flash and back. Tape the top end of the paper to the taped-down-already piece. You'll now have a macro diffuser for your pop-up flash.

 

[Netskimmer]

Thanks Darrel, I will try that on my next attempt. I would do it right now but I am preparing for bed. If I can, I will break out my gear, set up the shot and post up some shots before I head out tomorrow.

 

[Judobreaker]

Yeah, you should try getting some additional light into the photo's (Derrels tip is a very cheap solution which will definitely help you get a lot better lighting).
If you would like to get some photo's with a larger DoF you could try stacking photos with a different focus. The stacking can be done with software so basically you'd need to find stacking software and think of a way to create the same photo several times with a different focus (easiest with a tripod but not impossible without).

Additional information:
Focus stacking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Netskimmer]

Yeah, you should try getting some additional light into the photo's (Derrels tip is a very cheap solution which will definitely help you get a lot better lighting).
If you would like to get some photo's with a larger DoF you could try stacking photos with a different focus. The stacking can be done with software so basically you'd need to find stacking software and think of a way to create the same photo several times with a different focus (easiest with a tripod but not impossible without).

Additional information:
Focus stacking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thanks for the suggestion, I actually already have a stacking program recommended by another member here and may try to get some more use out of it now. I will probably try stopping down my lens to increase my DoF first but I'm not sure how effective that will be.

 

[Netskimmer]

Here are a few with my Derrel Diffuser. I also stopped down the lens and lengthened the exposure time considerably. Still not perfect but a definite improvement, especially on Lincoln.

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