This is my first effort. Some DOF issues, but pleased so far. Not really had chance to play yet

Taken with the lit lens, the spider is heavily cropped

DoF issue? What was that pic taken at? Centre weighted metering?

If that spider’s heavily cropped you need to a new razor.

Hold on a sec mol, I’ve just come from a compact and I’m still learning. I need to learn to adjust the aperture – more apparent with the spider I’ve added. With the dog, however, the background is ok, but his ear is slightly out of focus and also his body. I can live with the body. but overall needed a deeper DOF

The spider was about the size of a 10 pence piece including legs and I didn’t have a macro lens

Hmm.. must get my new tripod and macro lens out to try and grab some spiders, they do tend to sit obligingly still…

Macro lenses give a shallow DoF too. The pros do ‘focus stacking’ to get the full creature in focus. ( i.e. cheat 🙂 )
It allows them to get the bits they want in focus, while still leaving the background oof.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focus_stacking

Hmm, not a bad idea Alex.. my macro needs to be really close to get a big image, which results in a DoF so thin you can’t get even a whole insect in focus never mind a flower.

Got a ring light for my birthday with the aim of shedding more light so I can use a smaller aperture.

Kit lens that should have said earlier. Bloody phone

Have a look at DOFMaster. Experiment by trying different values for focal length, aperture and distance (there are tables too which are handy). It’ll give you a feel for how everything interacts.

If you haven’t found it already Dyxum is the font of all alpha knowledge (friendly too).

CombineZP is free focus stacking software (so you don’t have to do it manually), but there are other paid-for apps too.

Enjoy your new camera TheArtistFormerlyKnownAsSTR!

Cheers. Is stacking similar to using the bracketing feature that can be used in cam?

I often thought focus bracketing would be a nice idea. The camera could work out the DoF from everything else and adjust to get a specified actual DoF.

that dog looks really depressed

I often thought focus bracketing would be a nice idea. The camera could work out the DoF from everything else and adjust to get a specified actual DoF.

Some of the old Minolta film cameras had aperture bracketing. Similar concept. They’d expose the film several times with different apertures to smooth the out-of-focus transition. You’d have thought with digital these kinds of features would be common (and it surprises me the existed on film cameras).

Focus stacking is only going to work on a non-moving subject and when using a tripod though surely? Good for plants and still life stuff but not much good for most critters (unless you’ve stuck them in the freezer first as some people apparently do!)

I think I have aperture bracketing, not sure.. but not really the same thing.

Not the same thing but it is a stacking technique and it was automated which AFAIK focus stacking hasn’t been. I doubt you have aperture bracketing. Exposure bracketing, but not aperture.

Let me check. I know I have white balance bracketing.

Not the same thing but it is a stacking technique and it was automated which AFAIK focus stacking hasn’t been.

IIRC if you have your camera connected via USB there is some focus stacking software that will automate the process for you.

In fact, think this is the one – http://www.heliconsoft.com/

Many cameras have exposure bracketing (by changing shutter speed) and WB bracketing even – not seen aperture bracketing.

Yeah I meant in-camera automation. Very cool to be able to do it via remote pc control though.

Some stuff on apeture stacking (or Smooth Transition Focus emulation as Minolta called it) on the Maxxum 7 and some manual emulation of it with a modern camera here…

No aperture bracketing. ISO, WB , EV and flash bracketing though. Might try that last one, could be interesting.