Still trying

Well done Charles. You've got me really interested (and puzzled) now. Could I ask you some questions please?

Are these f/22 again?
Are they significant crops?
Are you shooting JPEG or raw?
If JPEG, what camera settings are you using by way of sharpness and contrast?
What (if anything) are you doing by way of post processing?
Would you be willing to post larger, preferably full size, versions, both the out of the camera JPEG (assuming you are shooting JPEG), and also your processed version (assuming you are doing some post processing)? And/or upload the raw file if shooting raw?

The reason I ask is that like the previous photos, these seem to contain more detail than is apparent in the posted versions, both of which look a bit soft to me, or lacking in clarity, or some such.


NOT MY IMAGE - Charlychuckchuck, Shield bug, DxO 10 JPG 01c LR by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


NOT MY IMAGE - Charlychuckchuck, Black fly, DxO 10 JPG 01c LR by gardenersassistant, on Flickr
 
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GardenersHelper said:
Well done Charles. You've got me really interested (and puzzled) now. Could I ask you some questions please?

Are these f/22 again?
Are they significant crops?
Are you shooting JPEG or raw?
If JPEG, what camera settings are you using by way of sharpness and contrast?
What (if anything) are you doing by way of post processing?
Would you be willing to post larger, preferably full size, versions, both the out of the camera JPEG (assuming you are shooting JPEG), and also your processed version (assuming you are doing some post processing)? And/or upload the raw file if shooting raw?

The reason I ask is that like the previous photos, these seem to contain more detail than is apparent in the posted versions, both of which look a bit soft to me, or lacking in clarity, or some such.

Thanks for your input Nick:hug: . Yes f22 but I have been messing about with an old ring flash and anything less than f22 gives over exposure. That has been binned now and I going to use ttl flash with a diffuser so I can use f11 as you suggested.
The shots are really significant crops.
Camera settings now being researched.
I don't know enough about Post processing yet but have tried using lighting contrast and sharpening.
I have been uploading pictures from my computer but maximum file size seems to keep my pictures small. I am looking to find how to upload full size files.(y)
Click to expand...
 
ChrisA said:
These are much better than your previous efforts. The sheildbug is very nice.

What did you do different ?
Click to expand...

Just following advice given in previous posts as best I can. Thanks for the post Chris.
 
Kodiak Qc said:
•


Very cool edit, Nick!
Click to expand...

I agree Daniel a good post all round. I have removed all the old post process software. having read your post on another thread I am going to try Affinity photo and I will try to become proficient enough to improve my images.(y)
 
charlychuckchuck said:
Yes f22 but I have been messing about with an old ring flash and anything less than f22 gives over exposure. That has been binned now and I going to use ttl flash with a diffuser so I can use f11 as you suggested.
The shots are really significant crops.
Camera settings now being researched.
I don't know enough about Post processing yet but have tried using lighting contrast and sharpening.
I have been uploading pictures from my computer but maximum file size seems to keep my pictures small. I am looking to find how to upload full size files.(y)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the extra information Charles.

f/11 was actually Chris' suggestion (@ChrisA). I'm one of the few people who use really small apertures like f/22. In fact I use it almost all the time for insects etc (but not for flowers). The thing is though that small apertures make images soft (because of diffraction) and it needs some post processing to counteract the softening. You can't fully reverse it, but you can make quite a difference. f/11 or f/10 is more usual though.

To get a good, sharp, detailed result from a really big crop needs an image with very good detail and sharpness to work on. Flash will help with that as long as flash is the dominant light source, in which case the effective shutter speed will be the length of the flash pulse, which is short. If you are using TTL flash things can get more complicated, as there may be a mixture of natural and flash light and the effective shutter speed may be slower than the length of the flash pulse, and slow enough to cause some loss of sharpness. It can help to shoot with the camera in Manual exposure mode, with the shutter speed set to the flash sync speed, while using flash in TTL mode (or for that matter in manual mode). That will guarantee that you get an effective shutter speed of at least the flash sync speed (probably 1/200 or 1/250 sec, depending on your camera).

Using a big crop reduces detail/sharpness. Using a big crop on an image which has been softened a lot with diffraction from a very small aperture is very challenging!
 
Great shots. The more you shoot and process, the better you'll get. I usually only shoot at f11, f22 is too soft with flash for me. If you've got a good stationary subject, you can try handheld stacking or even with a tripod/bipod.
 
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