First good jumper and a question.

I finally got a decent shot of a jumper. Pretty small male, and VERY active, so I'm pleased overall. So here's my question. I was shooting at f/11, but my DOF is still extremely shallow. While I know that is a constant issue with macro, what can I do to help expand that to include more of the critter? What f-stop do most of you guys shoot at? For the time being, I am not interested in stacking.

very nice, good light and composition. the lead eye is in focus
without focus stacking you will struggle to get much greater dof.
i dont usually go lower than f11- f14 for single shots. more often f8 same as for stack shots.

phil

Thanks Phil! I thought around f/11 is much of what many used, although I think I remember some using f/22. I do not have a good flash system, so my subjects have to be in great natural light. Not too bad for a reversed kit lens, if I say so myself, ! You have the lens that I would DROOL to get my paws on, the mpe-65.

you know how to set apreture manual using your reversed kit lens right?

Very good start. Should be getting pretty decent DOF at F11.

Lovely capture.
Not sure what magnification you were shooting at here but especially when shooting above 1:1 the aperture setting is a balance between DOF and softening caused by diffraction, so you could shoot say at F16 3:1 mag and get a bit more DOF but the image would be noticeably softer than at F11 or F8. Really depends on what is more important for you.
I'm a detail junkie and only use F11 at 1:1 and then open up the aperture as the mag goes up, but I often get the DOF back by focus stacking.

Brian V.