Bloodroot Duo

[Anita Bower]

I took this photo on Friday evening. We were leaving the wildflower preserve when we saw a beautiful group of Bloodroot. Though tired, I stopped to take some pictures, and am glad I did.

Nikon D300, Sigma 105mm macro, f32, 1/3 sec., ISO 400, Pattern metering, manual mode, manual focus. Tripod. Converted from RAW in Elements 7, PP in PS7--levels, saturation, contrast, selective color, burn, maybe other. Noise reduction with some trial program, name of which I forget.

[Julie Kenward]

Anita, I think this is one of my all time favorites of yours! Everything is beautiful from the whites to the BG. The flowers are in focus but still on the soft side (and I think that's appropriate here because it's a "soft" image. The whole thing totally works and flows together.

Beautiful!

[Mike Moats]

Hey Anita, I'm going out tomorrow to hopefully shoot the bloodroots. I like the comp, but the amount of focus in the images does not look like F/32. You should have had a lot more in focus. At f/32 those green leaves and even the brown on the floor would be much sharper. Are you sure about the f/stop listed at f/32 as it looks like it was shot more wide open. I not saying the image looks bad like it is, just curious about the f/32 and the amount in focus.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Anita,
Definitely appears shallow for f32 but sharp where necessary. I will offer that the whites may have a hair more detail and trying to pull them out will only further enhance the image. Next time out you may want to try and carefully re-arrange the leaves a bit to help conceal the leaves in the BG without harming the plant(which I never recommend). This may lessen the BG distractions extensively.

[Anita Bower]

This was shot at f32, using a Sigma 105mm macro lens. I, too, am puzzled by the shallow dof. Any idea what's going on? I shot this scene are various f stops, and this one has the greatest dof.

I'm afraid to pull out the whites more for fear of losing detail. How would you do it?

I will work on clutter.

Thanks so much.

[denise ippolito]

Anita, Does look a bit soft-but I don't think the softness takes away from the image, I like it!

[Mike Moats]

Hey Anita, my guess would be you focusing was off, because with that lens f/32 would have given you much more DOF.

[Anita Bower]

I have the answer!

My camera is showing the "effective" f stop, not the f stop seen on the lens aperture scale.

Here is an explanation from the web: (I have listed the source at the bottom)
Q: When I focus close, the F-number indicated on my Nikon SLR body increases. Why is this?ffice:office" /><O:p></O:p>

A: The effective aperture of most lenses changes as the lens is focused closer. There are a small number of exceptions to this – for example, the Nikon 70-180 macro lens is designed so that the effective aperture is constant as the lens focus ring is rotated, but this is unusual. For most lenses, this effect is not apparent to the user, because the amount by which the aperture changes is insignificant. However, with most macro lenses, the effect is much more apparent when the lens is focused at close objects. Some macro lenses simply don't report this change in effective aperture to the camera body; others do. To see which kind of lens you have, set the camera to aperture priority metering, focus the lens on infinity, and set the aperture to its maximum (smallest F-number, probably f/2.8 or f/4). If the lens is one that doesn't report the effective aperture, then the F number on the camera display doesn't change as you change focus; however, you will see the shutter speed changing as the effective aperture changes. With lenses that do report effective aperture to the camera, both the F-stop and the shutter speed will be seen to change as the lens is focused. In either case, it isn't a problem, as the metering system will compensate correctly for the change in aperture by setting the right shutter speed; however, if you are working with a lens that doesn't report effective aperture to the camera, you have to bear in mind that what you are seeing on the camera display isn't necessarily the effective aperture at that focus distance.

http://www.jeffree.co.uk/pages/macro-faqs.html<O:p></O:p>

Confused? Well, it makes sesnse, but, I wish my camera didn't show the "effective" aperture, as it confuses me, but, I will get used to it.