www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Depth of field (f-number) seems to be a trade-off with shutter speed in macro photography. I have heard that 2/3 of the field depth (and there’s not much of it) is behind the focal point and 1/3 in front. So if you have a subject in a V-shape as they often are, would focussing on the thorax lose 2/3 of the field depth, whereas focussing on the wing tip would lose only 1/3?

This would lead to an off-centre photo (unless you want to crop), but with the cameras that have multiple focussing points can you get round this by selecting one of the extreme left/right focussing points? I plan to experiment with this before the spring but wondered if anyone had any experience of this or useful tips.

hi roger

i beleive iam right in saying that with macro the dof changes to nearer 50/50
still there is only one point of focus and ultimate sharpness,the rest that falls within the dof is acceptably sharp ,i get so confussed with it all ,you can give yourself alittle more dof by moving back a little ,still when you reframe your enlarging and then loosing quality.
most butterflies at some time will close there wings or open fully just make sure your parraell use the correct f stop and fingers crossed you may get a sharp shot

best

eric

just a matter of time before theres a flood of replies to prove me wrong and correct my spelling

Yeh you could use one of the other focusing points, or manual focus

Assuming the butterfly has its wings open and I'm looking from above, I tend to focus on a point half way (in depth) between the closest and furthest away points. Usually half way across the forwing.

Or, if you are focussing on the body, once you have half pressed the shutter release the focussing is locked, so you could just move the camera back a couple of mm.

Either way just take loads of photos, the more you take the more likely you are going to get "a keeper"

I try to use the portrait photographer's rule of thumb and focus on the eyes, often experimenting with different viewpoints rather than the classic from the top open wing shot. It doesn't always work, but a slightly out of focus wingtip seems to me to be less critical than a head that's not sharp.
Here's an example:



Incidently, there's a method known as focus stacking. It involves taking photos of the same subject at slightly different focus points then using a piece of software to merge them all together. Needless to say, it requires a tripod and a subject that doesn't move.

eccles wrote:I try to use the portrait photographer's rule of thumb and focus on the eyes

Me too.

Martin.

PS - the stacking software is free...

http://www.hadleyweb.pwp.blueyonder.co. ... nstall.htm

V6GTO wrote:

eccles wrote:I try to use the portrait photographer's rule of thumb and focus on the eyes

Me too.

Martin.

PS - the stacking software is free...

http://www.hadleyweb.pwp.blueyonder.co. ... nstall.htm

I think you'll find that this guy uses that stacking software to produce these images. lordv's macro shots

Also some useful techniques explained.

Lordv takes the most awsome macro shots out there. More of his stuff can be found on POTN

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/for ... y.php?f=38

Martin.

Agreed, he has some amazing pics. He also wrote a short tutorial for image stacking, Here