macro images not sharp enough

[S.Mac]

I have a canon macro 60mm with extension tubes 12mm. I have been doing photography for 2 years. I use mostly the settings AV, exposure comp, white balance and set the lens on manual focus. I do mostly flowers images. It seems that when I take a photo of smaller flowers like the smaller daisy type variety, the (the yellow part of the daisy) center never seems quite sharp enough. I end up using the photo editing to sharpen the image. Generally,all my flowers end up in photo editing to sharpen anyway. Sometimes I would use the 12mm extension on the smaller flowers, and still the center is not sharp enough. What am I doing wrong here? Or does everybody else have to sharpen their images as well to get the almost perfect sharpness in macro? Any kind of feedback would be really appreicated.
S.MAC

[silvrr]

Post some examples. The small focal planes when doing high magnification macro can be very thin. Are you maybe focusing on the petals and the center is out of focus due the thin focal plane?

[themadman]

Some photos would help us help you =)

[S.Mac]

I will try to post a daisy...

[S.Mac]

Bear with me on posting a image....

[S.Mac]

This image is before photo editing.Aperture 5.6, macro 60 ext. 12mm.

[themadman]

1. Your shutter speed is 1/15, that might be a problem, try shooting 1/200
2. Your aperture is 5.6, you will get more DOF if you up it to f11 or something.

Now, both of those will darken your photo, so you will need a flash unit. Keep in mind macro, especially a macro lens with extension tubes, will have a razor thin DOF. Frequently focus stacking is needed to retain sharpness beyond a thin plane parallel to the front of the lens.

The petals coming out at the camera are out of focus, nothing you can really do about it unless you focus stack. They are just too far away from the plane of focus.

[racketman]

why wouldn't you expect to sharpen in Photoshop, you are meant to.

[Warl0rd]

you won't get sharpness on PP if it isn't there when you took it.

DOF is thin with tubes, plus unless your using a tripod and the flower is 100% static, you'll get blured. the workaround is using a flash.

so my suggestion is to increase the aperture to f/11, and use a flash or tripod (if no wind)

[S.Mac]

Thanks everybody for your suggestions and information. I will try to learn more about using the shutter speed in regards to dof. I have never tried changing speeds so I will work on that. I have heard of focus stacking but I am not really sure just actually what it is, but I will look into that as well. Flash?? I do not like flash for close ups, so I don't think I am really interested in going in that direction. I did used a tripod for this daisy indoors, so I know that's not the problem. As for aperture adjustments, I tried smaller apertures and that still remained fairly unchanged in regards to sharpeness in the yellow portion of the flower. So, I will work on those new 'tools' as suggested earlier. Thanks again.

[Bill Roberts]

It's absolutely normal with any DSLR to have to sharpen the image in post processing. Also, the Canon 60mm macro is a very sharp lens too. I wouldn't worry about the kit for now, just get used to using it. The vast majority of problems early on are down to user error. I'm not trying to be facetious by that, it's just fact. We've all been there :)

The main thing is to have fun!

cheers

[Warl0rd]

even at f/11 we are talking about a DOF of less then 1mm so if you want all the yellow part sharp you need to shoot straight ahead of focus stacking.

ISO doesn't play any part on DOF, neither does shutter speed, but you use both to come up with correct exposure

[S.Mac]

Thanks guys...but how do I use both of the speed and ISO on my camera? I have only used the AV mode only. I have changed the ISO before but I don't know how to change the speed and the aperture at the same time...what mode is that?

[Bill Roberts]

manual? :)
Only joking... You can keep half an eye on the shutter speed even when in aperture priority. As you move the aperture up and down you'll see corresponding changes in the shutter speed for any given ISO.

[themadman]

I would strongly recommend manual. Not sure if you have a flash or not, but if you do, put that into ETTL, set shutter speed to 1/200, Aperture to f11 and iso to 100 and go from there. Adjust flash output as needed if ettl isn't doing a good job =)

[S.Mac]

Thanks Themadman. If I set my shutter speed to 1/200 and have aperture set to f11, on what mode on my camera dial do I set it on for those two adjustments? I never had used any other settings on the dial except AV and the basic mode for auto. I always have my lens set on manual focus and my iso is always 100. What is ETTL?

[themadman]

I would set your camera to manual mode. It is the "M" on the dial. As for ETTL, it is a system that figures out how much flash power you need. I am not sure how the built in flash works, if you don't have a external flash, I would suggest you get one, it is better than the internal by a bunch =)

The Canon 430EX/II and 580EX/II are all pretty great flashes!

[Stargazerfrank]

right click and save the shown picture then open it in Ps sharpen and save again you will have a much nicer pic.

[S.Mac]

Thanks guys...I will check my camera book regarding the M mode on the dial.

[themadman]

All Canon DSLRs should have it, what camera do you have?