In viewing the many great photos in MR and this forum, I see a great depth of field in some of the close ups ( like Terry in Texas thread). My semi expensive diigital camera only stops down to F14.
Is there a way to increase this cameras depth of field? Like the old trick of a pinhole?
If you can mount your camera on a tripod and manually adjust the focus, you can take several exposures of the exact same location, but at different focus settings (going from closer to farther). Then you can use Helicon Focus software to ‘overlap’ the images so that everything appears to be in focus.
f/14 on a digital camera should give a decent depth of field. I can good depth with my Canon Powershot S5, which only stops down to f/8. Part of the secret is to focus part way into the scene, let the depth of focus appear before and after the actual focus point. If you focus on something really close to the lens, the depth won’t be all that great. Check out “hyperfocal distance” through a Google search, it will give you more info.
What camera focuses to f/14? Most point and shoots will only do f/8 or so. I can get f/22 with my DSLR, and the best depth of field is obtained at the lens’ widest length; this goes for all cameras. I get the best using my wide angle zooms. More info and samples in my model railroad digital photo website in my signature.
I used a 28mm wide angle lens with a home-made pinhole aperture for many years with my film camera, but it doesn’t work as good with my DSLR, I no longer use it.
Here’s an extreme example using my HO scale diorama:
My camera is a Panasonic and I lied, it goes to F11, not F14.
Is that software expensive?
Bob, did youse hyperfocus on that extreme shot?
BB:
Short answer - the small sensor leads to a shorter focal length which leads to more DoF with a given aperture setting (than, say, a camera using 35mm film).
Long answer:
http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/tech/dof.html
(I’m under the impression that the costlier digital SLRs have larger sensors than the point-and-shoots, which would require a smaller aperture, all other things held equal. Of course, they’re also more controllable than, say, my HP R607 point-and-shoot, which is really more of a point-and-pray camera. Any machine, sufficiently automated, approaches the limit of a random-result generator. But at any rate, though it can give art photographers problems when they want to do Cool Stuff, the digicams have been a major boon to us modelers.)
The Helicon Focus software is/was around US$100.00, and they do or did offer the program with a 30 day free trial. I have no need for it, so it never interested me. To use it, you will need a camera that will allow you to focus at many points in the scene. The camera would be securely mounted on a tripod, and shots would be taken at every 4 inches or whatever distance you want to try. Most point and shoot cameras do not allow such precision focusing, so a DSLR might be the only way to go. If you have a DSLR, then a wide angle lens (at least 18mm), will give close to the same results without any computer messing with the images.
I probably did use the hyperfocal distance in my shot, probably focused on the small shed in the middle, so the zone of focus would extend to the fence in the foreground and back to the rear of the diorama.
Here’s a shot taken at f/8 on my Canon Poweshot S5:
And here is a shot that shows the relative size of camera sensors. The large one on the left is from a Canon Rebel, the one on the right is from a Canon Powershot G8. Both are 6MP sensors, the DSLR one is many times the size of the point and shoot model. This is one reason why many choose DSLRs - larger sensors, more and better info can be recorded.
This may be a repeat of what someone posted earlier but I have been using ‘Combine Z5’ with great success to “overlay” 3 or more photos with varying focus to create the illusion of depth of field.
The app can be found here: http://www.hadleyweb.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/CZ5/combinez5.htm
I forgot to mention the app is free…
Bruce, you got a lot of advise so I will forllow another track. I’m not familiar with Panisonic, most of my published photos are taken with a Canon 35mm slr but my dslr is also a Canon Power Shot S1. On the camera top there is a knob for various features. Look to see if you have aperture control, on Canon it’s marked Av, it will give you the max f stop avalible. Now focus on something about 1/3 of the way into the photo and shoot. This should give you the max. depth of field with everything in focus. Also using a wider angle zoom will often help, be careful to much can distort the photo. I’ve found that many digital cameras are not set at 50mm when first turned on, more like about 35mm. You can test this by taking a photo with a pole or building, something with a straight edge and see if the edge is bowed or not.
Good shooting, Rob