Out of Focus Macro Photo's- Any Suggestions

[Tex123]

Hopefully someone can help us. We own a Nikon D5000 with a Tokina AT-X Pro D 100mm F2.8 Macro lense. We are attempting to shoot 1" x 1" pieces of jewelry. Despite hours of trying, the photo's appear slighlty out of focus and are not the crisp macro photo's I have seen coming from this type of lense. For example, look at the photo below, the bottom of the pendent has no detail and is fuzzy. Even the top is not crisp.

We are shooting 1 foot directly above the piece using a good tripod, remote shutter clicker, a shadow tent, and good lighting. The camera is set on Aperature priority, F16.

If anyone is familiar with macro photography and has some suggestions, it would be greatly appreciated!!! I believe that I am doing something wrong which is preventing us from obtaining crisp macro photo's.

 

[Tex123]

Sorry I did not insert the photo. I'm trying to figure out how to upload an image from my computer to the site.

 

[Edsport]

Load the photo to a photo sharing site like flickr or photobucket. It will give you image tags. copy the tag and post it here and the photo will appear here...

 

[raphaelaaron]

are you using autofocusing as opposed to manual focusing?

rockwell has posted a review on his site concerning your D5000:

so you should probably manually focus it instead.

 

[tyler_h]

Manual focus for macro is almost a must. f/16 you're gonna get soft photos even in focus, at least compared to f/4-f/8 type ranges. Since you have a controlled environment try Focus Stacking. Then you can get away with f/8 if you have to patient to take a lot of shots. Most recent on my flickr is my attempt at focus stacking to see how it would go; 18 shots at f/8 starting close and focusing further away (rails and moving the camera would be better though).