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What is the best way of dealing with the thin DOF common in macro photography? The sample picture below shows what I am talking about. While the stem and peddles to the rear appear to be in focus the front of the flower is slightly out of focus. Now this isn't really a bad thing but what if I wanted more of the subject to be in focus?


http://www.flickr.com/photos/brate/1471151438/

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/brate/
Nikon D40 w/18-135mm, Quantaray 70-300mm
Adobe Photoshop CS2 w/Eyecandy Plug in, Paint.Net (Open source Photoshop clone), Photomatix, Google Picasa.

Close up the aperture (larger f number), you can experiment to get the focus to your liking, although the higher the f number, the more light you will need for the same exposure.

Hope this helped.

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Nikon D80 w/ Nikkor 18-135mm/ Nikkor 70-300mm VR/ Nikkor 50mm 1.8/ Nikon SB-25
Tamrac Digital 3 bag, Tamrac adventure 9
BR-2A reversing ring

My flickr page

Studini's right - you need a larger depth of field, which means closing the aperture down.

An interesting (and sometimes necessary) additional trick though is to try and reduce the actual depth of subject distances in your composition.

Lets say for arguments sake that your current aperture gives you a depth of field of about 2 inches from front to back at close range. If that's not enough to capture the whole of your subject in sharp focus and it's not possible (or desirable) to close the aperture any further, then try a slightly different angle which can accommodate the whole subject within your available depth of field. Or find a smaller flower!

The logical extension of this is tilt and shift lenses where you can actually adjust the angle of the plane of focus, but that's another story!

Hmm, and by the way: I find the small dof in your pic quite nice, brate!

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

I agree with Thomas
You do have a nice picture - yes the front petal may be slight out of focus as it is closer to you and lens.
But isnt that normal when 'your' focus is the centre of the flower ? Where the emphasis is ?

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Nikon D7000 and a bunch of Nikkors

you may also want to try your position (not distance) relative to the subject. ie. for a subject like a plant/flower, it could be more long than wide, so move side on to it and you will retain more of it within the in-focus shallow DOF.

nice shot tho!

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Canon EOS 400D, Canon EOS 30V, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, EF 50mm f/1.4 USM, EF 70-200mm f/4L USM, Speedlite 430EX, Kenko & Cokin filters

I like a smaller DOF, I think thats a nice picture.

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Graham
Flickr

Thanks, I know how aperture and DOF are related I just wanted to see if there where other tips/tricks and I think that you kind folks had a few there and I thank you for that. Personally I too like this picture just the way it is.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/brate/
Nikon D40 w/18-135mm, Quantaray 70-300mm
Adobe Photoshop CS2 w/Eyecandy Plug in, Paint.Net (Open source Photoshop clone), Photomatix, Google Picasa.

If you need more dof for static objects you could try focus-stacking (stacking only works good on non moving objects) . By putting your camera on a tripod and by focussing manually you can adjust focus in tiny increments......take a photo after every adjustment. Later on you can combine all these seperate photo's into one using stacking software like " CombineZM ". This software can be used for free.

Do a search on the net for "focus stacking" for much more info.

I've also been reading about this software and the results can be pretty amazing - I'll post something soon...

that focus stacking thing sounds pretty cool, i must give it a try when i have the time, thanks for that tip Houtmeyers Peter

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Nikon D80 w/ Nikkor 18-135mm/ Nikkor 70-300mm VR/ Nikkor 50mm 1.8/ Nikon SB-25
Tamrac Digital 3 bag, Tamrac adventure 9
BR-2A reversing ring

My flickr page

Another big advantage using this software is the fact that you do not have to use a very small aperture (high F-number). A lens does not perform very good at very small apertures (f16 and higher).For focus stacking f 8- f11 is more than enough . At these apertures most lenses perform at their best.