Hi all, am new to this forum...my question is how I can improve the dept of field of my photos, currently I use the Macro of my Pentax camera, but as you can see the dept of field is quite "short", how can I improve that??



Gungadin

Don't use the macro except for details. one way to get a good depth of field is to move the camera further away and crop the finished photo down when editing

Generally, you need a higher F-stop (F22, or F32 if possible) to get the maximum depth of field. This bigger F-stop gives a smaller shutter aperture that increases DoF focus (a pin-hole lens is the extreme case, giving nearly infinite DoF) - just be prepared for long exposure times since a tiny aperture lets in very little light.

I'm not familiar with Pentax cameras, so you will have to figure out how to manually set your F-stop and then get it to calculate exposure times by choosing "aperture priority" or similar. You'll need a tripod and shutter-release cable to avoid camera shake.

Hope this helps!

Tom

Tom and Pat, thank you for your help, I will try your tips.

Felipe

Perhaps you can use "landscape-mode", which uses higher f-stops. (f8 or more)
Also as other said, if your camera use manual modes, use the "Av-mode" on which you can tune the f-stop manual to a high number.
But for this case, you need more light, because of the smaller opening inside.

greetings...
Soeren

F-stop can be a tricky thing...note in your pic that the front is blurred as well as the slightly farther rearward figures....nice work BTW!....in that short of a distance it's odd that you got that kind of blurring - as others have said, take her out of Macro and I'd meekly suggest you hit the driver's side of Monty's humber{?} with alittle more soft light.
Just out of curiousity, where did you center in on with that Macro setting on? My guess would be the front window of the canvas....just for laughs try centering farther inward towards the bottom of the canvas between the 1st and 2nd canvas windows to try and focus the things on the right alittle better...centering can change things.......every camera has it's own quirks that can be good or bad - you'll need to play more with that one to see what it'll do for you, my 2cents for what its worth.

You need a good camera and more importantly a good lens.The more you move away from a subject to anticipate for more of it in focus, the detailing of your final picture will suffer more.

Smaller details simply wont be captured in sacrifice for the whole model being in focus.Its a trade off which you can only compensate for with higher specs equipment.One cheat is to use programs like Helicon Focus.But you will need to have a compatible camera (needs to shoot via a PC ) .I shoot ships and the bigger one in 1/350 are almost impossible to get all in focus unless i move way too far to be able to capture the smaller details in one shot ,even with the very best of the camera equipment in the market today.But with this program i can take a shot like this easily . http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-T5ERbKnCSyg/TbXWHhSumvI/AAAAAAAAABA/f23N-S9A8og/s1600/5.jpg .

That shot was taken with a Canon 5D MKII and a Canon 24-70 at70mm at F 8 using helicon focus .It is a composite shot of a stack of around 20 images .And thats the resized version!!

great ship, Kostas.

I got a canon eos 450D a couple of years ago. Still trying to figure everything out....

I have noticed that if I play about with ISO on manual settings, it too changes the light. This is a subject I still don't understand and what ISO is for.

A low depth of field at 1:80 shutter speed I got normal light. If a high depth of field say F16, the image became dull.

Link below will lead to a wealth of info:

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/diffraction-photography.htm

Welcome to Kitmaker!

Or if your camera/processing software can do it. Depth of Field/aperature bracketing.

Stitch together multiple images to get full depth of field. But that's not really purist!!

Here is a link
http://blog.epicedits.com/2007/06/24/quick-tip-aperture-bracketing/

Bought a new camera and installed halogen lamps. Now the depth is fine, IMHO. But too much light...

I am not to clued up on digital cameras as my professional photographic career was with film camera which had a depth of field ring on the lens which gave a good indication of d-o-f as well as a preview button, and this showed that 1/3 in front of critical focus and 2/3 behind was the norm., so I used to adjust the focus accordingly (no auto focus on my old Mamiya RB67) .Also, the model is static so a good tripod, maximum aperture and long exposure normally saw a good result. By the way, thanks for the tip on the sensors, I am not too familiar with digital and learn t something new.

Too much light? Cant have too much light.. Remember that a light background can cause overexposure.Place a gray card in front of the subject, fill the frame with it and lock on to that exposure, recompose ,and shoot. By the way, green grass can be a good substitute for a gray card and i have often locked on to that when shooting outdoors.One advantage of digital is that you can see the result immediately especially with that graph thing (histogram?) which is a great help.
I must say you are fortunate to have lots of light, and would like to hear more about them as my old flashes don't work too well with my digital.

problem with the front and rear..??? the best way to do is..make a series of test shots with different settings and distance from the subject.. the choose the right one for you. one.. several shots and choose the right one. front and rear is also my problem..



but i finally got that right. one more thing..be familiar with your camera. from 50 to 100 shots..you get 40-60 good shots..that's not bad. enjoy modeling and shooting. (",)

The higher the number on your f stop the more will be in focus. But, the higher the f stop number, the more light you will need. You can set the camera on aperture priority and the camera will try to set the rest of the features to get a good shot. If it is not to your liking, you can go to full manual and slow it down more. Keep in mind, if you get to a speed of 1/10 of a second or slower, you will more than likely need a tripod or something to hold the camera still.