Nikon D5100 (Macro Lens) HELP

[Roomka]

Hi, Does anyone know how to setup the macro lens to focus on the whole area (In this example the whole case of the watch) the picture below shows how it doesnt focus the watch itself but either the right side is focused or the left side is focused.



The left image shows the right side of the case is focused and the right images shows the left side focused. i cannot get both sides to be focused.

 

[zamanakhan]

stop it down, bring your aperture down. Basically what is happening right now is the aperture is opened up which lowers the depth of field. When you are this close even 5.6 gives you a low depth of field try f11 or so, or keep going.

the other thing you can do is take both photos and then stack the focus in Photoshop, but this is a little more advanced, try stoping it down first, seems like that should fix your problem. What is your setup here, what are you using for lights, tripod?

 

[Roomka]

i have a tripod, a light-box, and a 60mm macro manual fixed lense(F/2.8D). im taking the shots from 16 inches away, which mode should i be taking these shots in?

 

[jriepe]

As Zamanakhan said you need to be using a small aperture. Along with that backing away a bit and cropping will also give you more DOF.

Jerry

 

[zamanakhan]

its hard to say exactly what your f stop should be, quite honesty i cant calculate depth of field by distance and focal length on paper but i know how it works. You should be shooting either in A or M mode. If you are on a tripod put it in A mode set ur iso to 100-200 and put the f value at somewhere around 8- go up from there. If the shutter speed drops to less than 1/40 turn on exposure delay and maybe even use the timer, also if the image looks darker use spot metering and make use of exposure compensation.
I would only back away and crop if your fstop goes bellow f20. You wont get crazy diffraction from smaller fstop at that distance.

 

[KmH]

DoF is also greatly affected by the focus point distance.

The further away the point of focus, the deeper the DoF is.

16 inches is quite close. Mounted on a Nikon crop camera body, a 60 mm focal length at f/8 gives a total DoF of 0.05 feet (0.6 of an inch). On a full frame Nikon the total DoF is 0.07 feet (0.84 of an inch).

You don't want to use an apertrure that is much smaller, because diffraction effects can start softening focus sharpness.

Using a 200 mm lens, f/8, and a focus distance of 6 feet the total DoF for each camera type (crop/full) increases to 0.08 feet and 0.12 feet respectively.

 

[Roomka]

Zam i tried your settings and i believe they look great!

 

[zamanakhan]

Zam i tried your settings and i believe they look great!

View attachment 4179

there ya go!!! feels good to get it right, more important than us telling you what settings to use, u need to understand WHY you used those settings. Once you know what you are doing it will set you apart from just a casual shooter.