Too much of a breeze to get it all in focus but it is a nice rose

[JBW]

[Manfred M]

With the right combination of ISO, aperture and shutter speed (using a depth of field chart) you can definitely get the whole flower in focus. This is how we used to do this all the time in the days where cameras did not have autofocus (and did have DoF markings on the lens barrel).

I think the technique is sometimes referred to as "zone focusing".

[JBW]

With the right combination of ISO, aperture and shutter speed (using a depth of field chart) you can definitely get the whole flower in focus. This is how we used to do this all the time in the days where cameras did not have autofocus (and did have DoF markings on the lens barrel).

I think the technique is sometimes referred to as "zone focusing".

I do have a zone focus setting. But I shot on local which is like a movable spot focus. I will try it later on zone. Our golden hour is close to a golden 15 minutes with the added speed of rotation near the equator.

[Manfred M]

I do have a zone focus setting. But I shot on local which is like a movable spot focus. I will try it later on zone. Our golden hour is close to a golden 15 minutes with the added speed of rotation near the equator.

The technique I am suggesting is a manual focus technique. The camera focus cannot get it right unless a bit through blind luck. I still use prefocus / zone focus techniques in some of my shots.

[JBW]

The technique I am suggesting is a manual focus technique. The camera focus cannot get it right unless a bit through blind luck. I still use prefocus / zone focus techniques in some of my shots.

I just did a quick read and it seems I need a lens that tells me the distance?

[Wavelength]

Nice image

[JBW]

Nice image

[Manfred M]

I just did a quick read and it seems I need a lens that tells me the distance?

Doesn't your lens have a distance scale on it? All of mine do. I just use that and estimate the distance. I tend to stop down one more stop than the charts suggest just to give myself a bit more margin of error.

[JBW]

Doesn't your lens have a distance scale on it? All of mine do. I just use that and estimate the distance. I tend to stop down one more stop than the charts suggest just to give myself a bit more margin of error.

All I've got for now is the 18 - 55 mm scale.

[pashminu]

Nice composition. Loveled it.

[Manfred M]

All I've got for now is the 18 - 55 mm scale.

That's all you need. The when you manually focus for a zone you disable autofocus and use the manual focus scale on the lens to set up the distance to the subject based either on a measurement or eyeballing it (which is what I do).

[JBW]

That's all you need. The when you manually focus for a zone you disable autofocus and use the manual focus scale on the lens to set up the distance to the subject based either on a measurement or eyeballing it (which is what I do).

I can look into this.

[JBW]

Nice composition. Loveled it.

I was out a bit on the focus but it does sit nicely in the frame.

[Shadowman]

Nice shot.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Manfred,

Brian's Sony kit lens only has the "18-55" zoom scale - no focus scale is provided on his lens (I just checked some photos of it).

This means he's reliant on choosing different parts of the rose to focus on, using AF - and trying to ensure all depths are covered, before stacking.

In the shot above; near and far petals are sharp, but there are some between those two extremes that are not, which, from his comments, I assume he might have shot, but they were moved too far within the frame for the stacking to cope with (due to the wind).

Have I got that near enough correct Brian?

[bnnrcn]

I really like the warm light on the rose Brian, beautiful image

[Manfred M]

Hi Manfred,

Brian's Sony kit lens only has the "18-55" zoom scale - no focus scale is provided on his lens (I just checked some photos of it).

This means he's reliant on choosing different parts of the rose to focus on, using AF - and trying to ensure all depths are covered, before stacking.

In the shot above; near and far petals are sharp, but there are some between those two extremes that are not, which, from his comments, I assume he might have shot, but they were moved too far within the frame for the stacking to cope with (due to the wind).

Have I got that near enough correct Brian?

Thanks Dave - I just had a look at my Panasonic Lumix lenses and they seem to be missing this feature as well. My wife's Nikon lens has it. Strange that the lens makers would omit such an important tool, but I guess they must figure no one is going to use anything other than autofocus.

[Mike Buckley]

I'm terrible at estimating distances, so I would make some test shots using manual focus and Live View with the image magnified to 100% in the LCD display. Once I know the aperture setting that would produce the required depth of field, I would then take multiple images because of the wind and perhaps changing light.

Focus stacking doesn't seem to be a reasonable method considering that the wind was blowing the subject.

[george013]

The technique I am suggesting is a manual focus technique. The camera focus cannot get it right unless a bit through blind luck. I still use prefocus / zone focus techniques in some of my shots.

I think you need more luck with the prefocus approach.
Brian needs a bigger dof to compensate the unaccuracy of the focus. Or wait for some other weather.

George

[Dave Humphries]

I just had a look at my Panasonic Lumix lenses and they seem to be missing this feature as well. My wife's Nikon lens has it. Strange that the lens makers would omit such an important tool, but I guess they must figure no one is going to use anything other than autofocus.

Indeed, it seems to be a fairly common omission, especially on the wider angle kit lenses - in fact even my Nikon 35mm/f/1.8 prime doesn't have one (all my other lenses do), but that's also renowned for being a 'value' lens.

I guess with the short 'throw' (angular rotation) of AF lenses, the scale becomes so cramped as to be almost useless anyway - shame.


Brian, I wondered, perhaps a focus rail would be a useful addition to your tripod head for stacking shot series?

This would allow you to:
a) Focus on the closest petal and switch to MF (and do not adjust focus on lens)
b) Shoot first 'layer'
c) Creep the camera and lens forward a bit
d) Shoot second 'layer'
e) Repeat c) and d) as many times as necessary to reach the 'far side' you need sharp

Knowing how much to 'creep the lens forward' would take some calculation and practice to begin with, as would framing.

I haven't tried this technique, although I do have a cheap focus rail, I've not done much Macro since buying it.

Cheers, Dave