Focus/distance thoughts (1 Viewer)

In line with other threads (and thread posters) I find the d.o.f. can be quite limiting with macro (I use the Sigma 150mm)**.
My thinking is.......the further away you are from the subject then the greater the d.o.f........
Therefor-is it better to be a little further away in order to get better d.o.f. and then crop the photo ?
I realise the problems e.g. the more cropping the worse the quality etc. but do others find that some sort of compromise in distance is worth the sacrifice in order to improve the d.o.f.

The attached was taken with the 150mm and the dof is OK as I was able to use f16** but at, say f8 you start to struggle.

My own opinion is better not to crop, well not heavy that is, and if you do you might need some noise reduction to help your image, the one you have here has alot of noise in it. At the moment I have been shooting with my 150 at 400 ISO f8/f11. I agree its not perfect for DOF for anything that is not flat onto to you, but you have the speed, I am really after sharp images if its out of focus a little at the back well I will live with that at the moment till all my flash gear arrives, than the fun starts. So moving back is not a option for me I would rather move forward to fill the frame.

Nikon Kid said:

My own opinion is better not to crop, well not heavy that is, and if you do you might need some noise reduction to help your image, the one you have here has alot of noise in it.

till all my flash gear arrives, than the fun starts. So moving back is not a option for me I would rather move forward to fill the frame.

Click to expand...

Interesting. I sharpened that image more than normal. The attached is the original without any manipulation. I was at ISO 1600 so as to get best speed/smallest aperture......does it still have too much noise??

What flash gear have you gone for? I am looking at some of the ring flash systems but they are very expensive:C

I am myself only just starting off on macro in the last few months, there are better informed guys on this forum than me, thats for sure, but I think at 1600 ISO you have lost alot of detail, I don't think I would shoot at that high ISO. Winging its way to me is a Sigma EF-530 DG Super Flash, I am going to mount it on this bracket image below, and going to use a Lumiquest SOFTBOX flash diffuser, which one I am waiting for someone to reply on what they thing is best, regular size or the Mini one.

I have to disagree with you Terry. The first shot doesn't seem overly noisy or lacking in detail - the noise that's there is almost certainly a product of sharpening. David, try sharpening just the subject and not the background - which is were the noise will be most visible. There seems to be slight motion blur on the bee, but that's about it. I think a small amount of cropping is more than acceptable.
To be honest, I can't imagine that not having the whole plant in focus would have ruined the shot - as long as the bee and some of the flower was in focus, it would be fine.

I think I might have been a bit hasty in saying it had alot of noise, but it lacks detail to me, well 400 ISO v 1600 ISO it must lack some detail, But as I said what do I know, I am still learning.
Here is an image that I think has detail taken at f8 1/320 400 ISO manual exposure full frame handheld if it was at 1600 ISO it would lack some detail

I think it depends partly what you go for in a shot - I know for a lot (possibly a majority) of macro shooters who are keen on the subject one major aspect is fine details in the capture - so going into diffraction areas or lots of cropping are things that they look to avoid in their work since it often results in a lesser amount of finer details showing up in the end shot.

As for the idea its certainly interesting, but one would have to test how far you have to stand back to get a reasonable increased in depth of field and compare that to the amount of shot which can be cropped well enough without causing problems. Its also something where the main limit I think will be on the camera not the photographer - a highend 5DM2 type camera (ignoring crop vs FF sensor differences in frame) could take a much heavier crop and still give a very usable image than a lower end 400D for example.

Also for ISO 1600 there is far less noise in that shot than I would expect! Though you can see that details have suffered its not an unusable image.