Macro DOF Question

Hello all,

This is my first post in Macro. A little about me, I have a 7D with a 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS lens. I don't have a collar for it yet. It does seem to affect things in my practicing, but I'm not sure how much yet. Other than just manually focusing seems to move the camera around a bit even with the ball head locked down tight. I.e. it kind of springs a bit as I manually focus it.

Anyway, my question is how do I increase my DOH slightly. Plz see the attached picture. It's DOF is so razor thing that the eyes and head are sorta in focus, but his body falls off out of focus. It seems like I should be able keep the entire body of a ladybug in focus with this lens. I had the focus distance selector set at the .3-.5m. Should I have changed it to .5 to infinity or full? I was using live view to focus with the camera zoomed in at 10x. I will say that the focusing is tricky, I don't have to turn the barrel very far to move the focus a lot.

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR

Since you don't want to give up focal length, your best bet is to stack. To stack, start by focusing where you did, then focus back a bit, then back a bit more, and so on. Then use software to assemble (stack) the multiple [focus bracketed] shots into a single focused shot with great DOF.

Edit: Photoshop will stack. There's also a number of dedicated packages. I use Photoshop so can't give advice on the other options...though there are lots out there.

like frank suggests really the best you can do is stack photos if you want the entire subject to be detailed and in focus. It takes some practice, but from the looks of it you're off to a good start!
You may want to diffuse your flash a bit, some of the other users have some great do it yourself ideas that work wonders.
Hope this helps, keep practicing

Thanks guys, agree about the flash. I had a small Apollo light modifier thingy on the flash that I got for Christmas. I will give the focus stacking thing a try. Are you just using the align layers and then using masks to mask out the out of focus parts?

Thanks again!
BK

you can do it manually if you're good in photoshop, CS4 and 5 i believe have a process built in to accomodate stacking.
there's also a couple programs that will do it for you, Helicon, Zerene just to name a couple.

I'll just say what I think I would do. The problem with that is I know a lot less than anyone about photography than is reasonably expected of any one giving advice on photography!

The lens you have is very good and only really starts giving poor results at around F16. So I would utilise F13 a lot and use a flash. I would work very hard to find a good method of diffusing it. I would also use one of two techniques for focusing: 1. Manual focus through viewfinder, leaning in toward the subject, focusing on the eyes until they go out of focus then retreating just enough to refocus them. This way I am using the entire DOF for the subject and wasting none on the foreground. Method 2 would be to sway back and fourth slightly whilst taking three exposures. This is useful if the critter is unlikely to be in one place very long, as it gives me 3 chances of catching it just right. As a bonus I may also get a stackable subject.

The problem with live view and zooming in on the subject to focus is that I lose the relationship between my subject and its environment. As important as the subject is, the image and its composition is pretty important and maybe I shouldn't leave it to chance. If at all possible I want to be making creative decisions with the camera in my hand and not be dependent upon cropping and post-processing.

You might want to try using a focusing rail instead of trying to turn the focusing ring.