exposure settings

[dennis campbell]

have new 18-105 2.8 micro lens .....haveing trouble getting correct settings to stop motion .......am using the ap/priority on d200 when i go to shutter /priority the f /stops screw w/ my depth of field.....which is almost next to nothing from 6 down ....suggestions ????? thanks
dennis

[Colin Southern]

Hi Dennis,

The sensor needs a certain amount of light for a correct exposure. If you need to stop motion then you're going to need a relatively short exposure, but if you want a deep depth of field then you'll need a small aperture as well (cutting the light reaching the sensor even more) - so the only other thing you can do (camera wise) is make the sensor "more sensitive" by increasing the ISO (which will increase the noise levels).

There are other secondary things that you can do (eg using flash, under-exposing etc), but that's possible outside the scope of what your trying to do.

Perhaps if you can give us a few more details we might be able to get a better understanding of what's needed.

Hope this helps!

[dennis campbell]

colin thanks for the fast reply ......shooting flowers at f/22 iso 200 at 2 ft. a dragon fly is in frame but is out of focus due to movement .....my problem is that for submissions the file has to be no less than 48 mb and at a 100% this leaves pretty much no room for errors .......noise and focus in particular ......am i asking too much to try and get the flower and the dragonfly in stop motion or do i have to come down w/ f/ stops and go after one or the other......could a different lens achieve what im after ....which is a micro shot that has enough dof to capture the two elements and stop the motion w/ sharp focus at that file size.......

[Colin Southern]

Hi Dennis,

I'm pretty sure that you won't be able to do it. Using the Sunny 16 rule (ie outside on a bright day) at F16 @ ISO 200 you'll have a shutterspeed of around 1/200th; at F22 @ ISO 200 you'll be down to 1/100th (at best).

Personally, I'd set the ISO to it's maximum - try for something like F11, but shoot from father away (to increase depth of field). If this freezes the motion then lower the ISO to lower the noise (if allowed) (you could always crop and then up-sample in Photoshop) (I didn't just say that)

Also, at F22 you'll be suffering from diffraction which will make it harder to get everything sharp.

Not sure why a "48mb file" would be required? Presumably they mean *.TIFF?

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Dennis,

As Colin says at the end, an idea of the context would be helpful; e.g. competition entry, selling to a stock shot agancy, etc.?

If "the rules" allow, what about a composite? (i.e. two shots merged in PP, flower and dragonfly separately shot, each with their own focus for optimal DoF)

Flash might be another way to freeze the dragonfly and get the DoF you're after.

If you up the ISO, there are some very effective noise reduction solutions, e.g. I have Neat Image experience.

Regards,

[dennis campbell]

you guys are great thanks for the help.......agency requires all photos to be uploaded in no smaller than a 48 mb jepg from a tiff / raw format and be spot on at 100% of size .....have never tried resampling have tried to keep it simple and use as little pp as necessary .....having the cs4 and nik filters does allow for some adjustments but the less time i spend in pp the better .......i am using a tamron 28-300 and there seems to be a unexplored space between it and the nikor micro.....can you recommend a lens that will overlap on the long end of the micro and the short end of the tamron i would think that this would give me a comprehensive ability with my shots........
thank you guys for the input.......
dennis

[Colin Southern]

agency requires all photos to be uploaded in no smaller than a 48 mb jepg from a tiff / raw format and be spot on at 100% of size

Hi Dennis,

Sorry, but this just doesn't add up. Have you got a link to their requirements that I can check out?

(A JPEG from a 48MB TIFF would kind of make sense, but a 48MB JPEG makes no sense at all).

[dennis campbell]

sorry ithought that it was understood that i have to come from raw ie the camera to other formats : raw to a dng ....then to a tiff and from that into the jpeg....alamy in london
dennis

[Colin Southern]

sorry ithought that it was understood that i have to come from raw ie the camera to other formats : raw to a dng ....then to a tiff and from that into the jpeg....alamy in london
dennis

Hi Dennis,

So you're saying that it's the TIFF file that has to be that size?

[dennis campbell]

the work flow is : camera raw to dng to pp.....duplicate is made and the original saved as dng ......changes made and saved to tiff......when i upload,the tiff ( min. 48 mb)is put into a jpeg .....(i havent seen any problems with going from a raw, dng or psd of 48 mb into jepg.....as long as im a 8 bit per channel )
dennis

[dennis campbell]

dave ,
what is this neat image expierience??? very curious
dennis

[Dave Humphries]

dave ,
what is this neat image expierience??? very curious
dennis

Hi Dennis,

I just mean I use it and am happy with it, to get started, please see;
Neat Image, a simple workflow

It is a noise reduction plug-in (or stand alone app.) that you open the picture in, sample a blank area so it knows what your specific noise 'signature' or pattern is for that image (camera and ISO setting), then subtracts this noise pattern from the image, thus removing the noise without destroying the fine detail (unless you want it to).

I find it works like Magic, but the NR in ACR isn't bad either, so I leave that at max. and with the Nikon D5000, don't need Neat Image so often. Whereas previously, with Fuji bridge camera, I used it on almost every single picture.

Cheers,

[rpcrowe]

Dennis, you mention that you are using an 18-105mm Micro Lens. I cannot find a lens of this type that is produced by any manufacturer. I have looked on the Adorama and B&H web sites as well as attempting to Google it. Additionally, I was under the impression that it is not possible (given the technology of "today") to have a zoom lens of that focal range with an f/2.8 aperture.

However, I would expect that the quality of a dedicated prime macro/micro lens would be far superior to any IQ obtained with a zoom lens. It appears that you are striving for optimum quality.

Here are some of the parameters of my macro shooting:

I shoot with a 90mm f/2.8 Tamron dedicated macro lens which provides image quality similar to my"L" class lenses.

I always shoot my macros using manual exposure so I, not the camera, controls my f/stop and aperture.

I always shoot macro using a 550EX flash and mini-softbox on a Siegelite bracket (see attached image).

I usually shoot my macros around f/11 because smaller apertures can lead to diffraction which compromises image quality and larger apertures do not usually have sufficient DOF.

I will normally shoot my macros at ISO 400. This ISO provides excellent quality when shooting with a Canon 40D camera and allows higher shutter speeds and/or smaller f/stops.

Given the parameters of macro photography, there are just some shots which are impossible to achieve. As an example, the shot of the dragonfly from the side is in focus but, when I attempted to shoot this large insect from the front, I couldn't achieve enough DOF to keep its entire body in focus.