Hi Nancy Congrats on getting the Canon 100 2.8 macro. Re sweet spot, yes between f8 and f11 is the optimum range, by 5.6 I can see a little softness creeping in (but still quite sharp - better than normal lenses), and by f16 I can start to see diffraction issues - not a lens issue - just a physics i...

Couple of jewellery items,
After Helicon, still need to process in CS3 to re-introduce blur for lower levels of the ring, main object is to keep the stones in focus.

the silver piece is actually a bangle (hard to tell with no sense of scale).

Charles/Mike, nice work, I can see that you have a similar challenge with these 'transparent' object that I do with shooting jewellery, especially diamond rings etc. Maintaining the clarity and 'life' in such object is tricky. Another observation - I'm constantly challenged by fixing the 'imperfecti...

Hi, Most likely culprits are: a) not enough frames taken, however without knowing what lens/aperture and the approx starting focus distance it's hard to know. b)the combo of lens, distance and aperture might not be optimum for sharpness. The following is best guesses based on the remaining exif in y...

That last was from me, didn't realise I wasn't logged in!

BrianS

Hi, Agree with both posts. After much testing, (and the availability of tools like Helicon) I've found f8-f10 the sweet spot for my Canon 100-2.8 macro. By f16 any gains in DOF are offset by diffraction. This link has an excellent tutorial, and an interactive caclulator http://www.cambridgeincolour....

Probably well known by now, however just in case... Canon's live view combined with their free tethered shooting program works a real treat. Focus steps are very small, with my 100 2.8 macro, I find I no longer need my focussing rail!! Plus I don't need to go near the camera. An important tip. the l...

I can't find anything in the manual about the 'Method' option in Parameters,. The hint boxes mention, Single pass using weighted average , Double pass using depth map. Can someone explain what the effective difference / when to use of these are? I've found only A is useful for my jewellery work. Als...

Hi Kent, I generally shoot jewellery with my 100 - 2.8 macro. I don't know which Canon your using but if your fortunate to have one of the later models with LiveView than you just gotta try tethered shooting!! I have a 40D and a 1Ds III, often use the 40D for macro as the crop factor gets me closer....