Beginner In The Garden (first Macro shots)

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hoodedreeper

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Chris
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I've been doing Automotive photography for years and thought it was time to expand. Bought myself a Canon EF 100mm IS L Macro lens and headed into the garden after work to try it out

1.IMG_0014 by Chris Baker, on Flickr

2.IMG_0037 by Chris Baker, on Flickr

3.IMG_0061 by Chris Baker, on Flickr

4.IMG_0114 by Chris Baker, on Flickr

I think it was more luck than anything? I'm not 100% pleased with the flower
 
Well done. The focus is spot on. Depth of field is a matter of personal taste, so you should do what pleases you. FWIW though, only having a very thin slice in focus from the use of f/2.8 for the first three doesn't work well for me.

I feel differently about (and use wider apertures for) flowers, and I think the narrow DOF from f3.5 works nicely with the last one. What don't you like about the flower? (It is my favourite of these - and it's good to see flowers here. IMO :))
 
hoodedreeper said:
To me the centre doesn't look pin sharp?
Click to expand...

I didn't look closely - I just liked the overall look of it. But yes, I see you are right. I think this is another DOF issue though rather than sharpness. I downloaded the big version from Flickr and was surprised when sharpening seemed to make no difference to it. Then I looked closely and saw there are some tiny areas/edges with detail. That is consistent with narrow DOF.

FWIW, it does vary depending on the circumstances, but I quite often shoot flowers at around f/10 to 1/13 on APS-C. Very much a matter of taste though.
 
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GardenersHelper said:
Depth of field is a matter of personal taste, so you should do what pleases you. FWIW though, only having a very thin slice in focus from the use of f/2.8 for the first three doesn't work well for me.
Click to expand...

At the opposite end of the DOF spectrum, you might like to compare your first shot with the flies in this post. They were captured with an aperture equivalent to f/28 on APS-C. The spider in this post was shot using the same aperture. But like I said, it is a matter of personal taste.
 
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