Yesterday was my first day shooting supermacro with the Canon RF 100mm and SMC-1. Using the Backscatter MF-1 and snoot. Definitely missed the lighting a little on the second Imperial shot, and didn't use the snoot for the Kahuna, so it's not as isolated. I'm having a hard time getting more than just one spot to focus. I am using Spot AF and the SMC-1 already has a working distance of only ~55mm, so I possibly wasn't close enough. Please give me constructive criticism, I've only been shooting for a month and want to improve!
I'm having a hard time getting more than just one spot to focus. I am using Spot AF and the SMC-1 already has a working distance of only ~55mm, so I possibly wasn't close enough. Please give me constructive criticism, I've only been shooting for a month and want to improve!
I assume you mean only one end of the critter is in focus?? If that is what you mean, it's likely par for the course, assume you are stopping down to f11-16 range? Unfortunately as magnification goes up depth of field goes down. According to the port charts the SMC-1 focuses between 29 and 80mm and achieves 2.3x magnification at 29mm.
At f16 and 1.5x magnification your depth of field is 0.42mm, at 2.3x it drops to 0.18mm, so getting closer only makes it harder to get everything in the same plane so it's in focus. I think you've done pretty well on the kahuna to get as much of it in focus as you have - basically it's down to getting yourself parallel to the the parts of the critter you want in focus. About how long is this one, assuming it's full frame I'd guess it might be 15mm long?
Thanks for the info. I'm mainly frustrated that the front of the imperial is in focus but even the rhinophores aren't. I think I was in the upper f20s, I still have a rudimentary grasp of aperture. The kahuna was ~the size of my fingernail. Appreciate the feedback!
6 hours ago, shakuiel said:
Thanks for the info. I'm mainly frustrated that the front of the imperial is in focus but even the rhinophores aren't. I think I was in the upper f20s, I still have a rudimentary grasp of aperture. The kahuna was ~the size of my fingernail. Appreciate the feedback!
If it was that small, you're probably at around 2.0x and have less than 0.5mm DOF at f27. If you want more depth of field your only real option is back up and crop the image a little - basically reducing magnification.
Depth of field is a flat plane and to get multiple things in focus they all need to lie in that plane, so you can try to move around the subject to better place the plane on the parts you want in focus, or you can try to get at least one rhinopore in focus. Depending on how good the implementation of focus peaking is you could try using that and rocking back and forth and moving around to get the peaking to show on the rhinopores. You could also try focus stacking - the R series EOS cameras allow depth of field bracketing, the main problem will be if your strobe can keep up - but that would be very much hit or miss shooting underwater - it can be hard enough on land.
