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it's not clear that focus is the actual problem...
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mattdm
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Perfect focus How can I get perfect sharpness when shooting still art?

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Perfect focus when shooting still art

I've been trying to shoot some marble sculpture that are well lit on a studio wall. The photos are coming out well and perfectly useable.. but I'm striving for something better. My issue is with sharpness, I can't get everything perfectly sharp. Any tips on top of what I am doing:

  1. I'm using a tripod
  2. Canon 5d mark II with 24-105 as well as nifty fifty
  3. Aperture highest the lens offers
  4. ISO 400 or lower
  5. Image stabilisers off
  6. Long and short exposures 4 seconds - 1/500
  7. Focusing manually using liveCode zoomed in 10x
  8. 1.5 meters from the subject

I'm getting great shots.. but I want to capture all the fine details of the stone, the textures and veining etc.

I can sharpen and boost the contrast etc in post and get some pretty nice images.. but with the source images being a little off, you can never capture that perfect photo.

http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/03/airy-dresses-carved-from-marble-by-alasdair-thomson/