latest macro attempt of weird snail

[tonkabui]

does anyone know what kind of snail this is? i've never seen it before. also, is there a general rule of thumb for aperture? i'm at 11 right now but it looks like i need to be at 22 or greater to get the proper dof. where should i be focusing? i can't find the little bugger tonight to try this shot again.

http://www.msprotege.com/members/tonkabui/macros/snail2contest.jpg

http://www.msprotege.com/members/tonkabui/macros/snail1contest.jpg

[4g63photo]

Love the second one. With a f22 i think you would have a very hard time with the slow shutter speed. Give it a try and see what the results are.

[LordV]

Interesting snail - Lovely pics. Not sure on the scale of this but suspect you probably would not get it all in focus at F22 plus you would get significant image softening from diffraction.
I generally do not shoot lower than about F11 unless the subject has no fine detail (like some flowers)- you could always try focus stacking to increase the DOF. see http://www.digitalgrin.com/showthread.php?t=61316
for a tutorial.
Brian V.

[skylab]

I like them both. Hard to get a good DOF, because of the length of the eye stalks.
So stacking is the best way.

[skylab]

I like them both. Hard to get a good DOF, because of the length of the eye stalks.
So stacking is the best way.

[Attic]

Snails are just so photogenic, nice set.

[Dorman]

These are pretty cool, but I would like to see more dof to have more of the snail in focus. You could try going down to like F/16 or shooting at an angle that has more of the snail in the focus plane. I have yet to try the focus stacking that brian uses, but it does work well for him.

[tonkabui]

thanks for the comments! i was down to 1:2 at f11. i think focus stacking is the only remedy an out of focus eye. i didn't even think of that! i love this place. thanks for the link brian!

[dpastern]

Lovely shots, I quite like both of them, snails are very cute!

Dave