Product Photography help needed - How to expand Focus range?

Hi there,

Im a novice photographer attempting to do product photography for my chocolate company. Im using:

Cannon 5d Markii
100mm Macro Lens
85mm 1.2 Lens

The chocolate bar and packaging is rectangular shaped and I cant seem to get the whole object in focus in any angled shot (aside from the birdseye). We need shots from the 45º angle and they need to be 100% in focus so all the packaging elements are readable.

1. Can I solve this with extension tubes?
- Ive never used them, so I don't know exactly which size tube I would need to get everything in focus

2. Should I be able to get these shots without the tubes using only more effective camera settings? What should those settings be?

Any guidance would be much appreciated.

Jordan

A tilt shift lens would work better. You can also use a high f stop and see if you can get the whole candy bar in focus?

Take Care,
Cheers, Patrick

Welcome to POTN!

Extension tubes won't help in this case. What they will do is give you image magnification and an even thinner DOF (depth of field).
What settings are you currently using? you might be able to get everything in focus by stopping down, ie a smaller aperture (larger f stop number).
If that doesn't work then you could do some focus stacking. What software are you using to process your images?

Depending on the image quality requirements you might be able to shoot with the camera further away then crop in post. If the images are for web or print catalogues then you should be fine. Does your company have image size/quality requirements for the images?

To calculate your DOF (amount of the image that will be in focus) you can use something like: http://www.dofmaster.c​om/dofjs.html

Jordan,
The closer you work to the subject, the less depth of field (area of acceptable sharpness) you have. By cranking up the lights you can use smaller apertures (larger numbers) but even thats unlikely to get you what you need. Play with this online calculator to see the effect of your lens and distance. http://dofmaster.com/d​ofjs.html As Patrick said you might want consider a tilt shift lens that lets you change the focal plane from side to side to get more of the bar in focus.

gonzogolf wrote in post #14838299
As Patrick said you might want consider a tilt shift lens that lets you change the focal plane from side to side to get more of the bar in focus.

A principle to keep in mind that a tilt lens merely allows you to tilt the plane of focus relative to the camera sensor. If the DOF range was 2mm thick with the focal plane parallel to the sensor, with a tilt lens the DOF range still is 2mm thick but at an angle relative to the sensor!

For example, shooting with 90mm lens on APS-C camera at 16" from focal-plane-to-subject, one would capture a 2"x3" area in the frame, the DOF zone at f/11 is 0.22". Tilt the plane of focus with a 90mm TSE lens and the DOF zone is still only 0.22" thick slice thru the piece of candy that you are trying to shoot. Shooting a chocolate bar, the TSE would help. Shooting a chocolate truffle which is 0.7" x0.7" x 0.7", the TSE wouldn't do much good.

Wilt wrote in post #14838352
A principle to keep in mind that a tilt lens merely allows you to tilt the plane of focus relative to the camera sensor. If the DOF range was 2mm thick with the focal plane parallel to the sensor, with a tilt lens the DOF range still is 2mm thick but at an angle relative to the sensor!

For example, shooting with 90mm lens on APS-C camera at 16" from focal-plane-to-subject, one would capture a 2"x3" area in the frame, the DOF zone at f/11 is 0.22". Tilt the plane of focus with a 90mm TSE lens and the DOF zone is still only 0.22" thick slice thru the piece of candy that you are trying to shoot. Shooting a chocolate bar, the TSE would help. Shooting a chocolate truffle which is 0.7" x0.7" x 0.7", the TSE wouldn't do much good.

The OP said the bar and its packaging were rectangular hence my use of the word bar.

Focus stacking?

I've never played around with it myself so maybe others could jump in?