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I want to make a full focus on the body, for example:
I need to have a clear focus on the each balls in the photo. I used just single point focus.

enter image description here

In this picture I used:

  • shutter speed: 8
  • aperture: F/4
  • ISO: 200
  • 2 flashes, one in the right and one on the top of project
  • camera: nikon d300s
  • lens : 105mm micro 2.8

Thanks

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2 Answers 2

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To get more depth-of-field you have to increase the aperture from F/4. Since your subject does not have much depth, F/8 might be enough. Otherwise, try F/11.

Since you are using flashes, their illumination will drop off proportionally to your aperture. So going from F/4 to F/8, you loose 2 stops of light. There are 3 ways to compensate:

  • Boost ISO by 2 stops, so to ISO 800 in that case. In your D300s, the quality difference should be minimal. This is the easiest adjustment to make.
  • Reduce the distance of the flashes by half. Light falls off with the square of the distance. So at half the distance, you will have 4X the flash power.
  • Boost the flash power by 2 stops.
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    \$\begingroup\$ Or make the shutter speed longer \$\endgroup\$ Jun 23, 2011 at 4:04
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Billy - Wrong. Shutter-speed has no effect on flash since the burst of flash is very short compared to the shutter-speed. You will only get a difference due to ambient lighting. \$\endgroup\$
    – Itai
    Jun 23, 2011 at 4:08
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Billy ONeal - shutter speed doesn't really have any effect on the flash exposure \$\endgroup\$
    – rfusca
    Jun 23, 2011 at 4:09
  • \$\begingroup\$ @rfusca - Jinx! Although apparently I had a 29s lead ;) \$\endgroup\$
    – Itai
    Jun 23, 2011 at 4:10
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Billy flash, done correctly, isn't something to avoid. As photographers, we are light artists - we should use the tools we have. \$\endgroup\$
    – rfusca
    Jun 23, 2011 at 4:19
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If increasing aperture (which I would use too) does not help, there could be possibility to use focus stacking like on this example from Wikipedia using something like free Combine ZM/ZP. But have no experience with it. :-D

enter image description here

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Shrinking your aperture should always help with depth of field, but sometimes you run out of f-stops. Focus stacking like this should be useful if you're already at f/22 or whatever your lens's smallest aperture is. \$\endgroup\$
    – Evan Krall
    Jun 23, 2011 at 8:39
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Evan: it's also helpful when/if you simply want your picture sharper than f/22 (for example) will give. You lose enough due to diffraction at smaller apertures that a stack at (say) f/8 can increase DoF and resolution. \$\endgroup\$ Jul 5, 2011 at 7:17
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Jerry That's a good point. \$\endgroup\$
    – Evan Krall
    Jul 5, 2011 at 7:48

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