& Help with sharpness - Bee example.

[Slaphead]

Ok maybe I'm being a bit fussy, and normally I don't do pixel peeping, but when I'm doing macro I can't help myself - I mean part of the point with macro is the detail you can capture. Now I'm looking around on this forum and on 500px and I'm thinking that I'm just not getting the sharpness that a lot of other people are. An example:

Looks OK-ish when sized to web at 800 pixels I guess.


Now lets look at it from 100%

This is a screen shot showing the focus active focus point. The image has had a little sharpening applied and other than bringing it down 2/3's of a stop that's the only PP it's had, and IMO this is not particularly sharp - especially considering some other work that I've seen at 100%

Kit used for this was D7000, 105VR and Macro flash kit R1C1 - So the problem must lie with me and/or my technique so I'll explain what I'm doing.

First off I'm using autofocus as I can't really see me manually focusing fast enough to catch these things before they fly off again. I'm depressing the shutter all the way to ensure that camera fires as soon as focus is reached to minimise any movements by myself that will throw the scene out of focus.

I understand that working at f18 means that diffraction becomes an issue, but I need the DoF. Another thing that has just crossed my mind is that I'm using a UV filter on the lens, and not a particularly expensive one at that. So maybe that's robbing me of some image quality.

Basically tell me, am I just expecting way to much, or is there an underlying problem here.

Thanks

 

[gramps]

I'm using a UV filter on the lens, and not a particularly expensive one at that. So maybe that's robbing me of some image quality.

So have you tried it without?

 

[Slaphead]

So have you tried it without?

Errm no, not yet, but only because it occurred to me while writing the post. Trust me, next time I'm out doing this sort of work I'll dump the filter.