| Joined: | Mon Apr 2nd, 2012 |
| Location: | South Lakeland, UK |
| Posts: | 4066 |
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3) South Africa must be a haven of small wildlife, (bugs) given the wide diversity of fauna and flora also the climate.
I haven't investigated the South African bugs but I have looked closely at the flora in a specialised sense (commemoratively named species). The diversity of the two are related.
One of the first things you need to do is abandon AF, which was why I suggested a less automated camera may be better for this type of photography. YOU need full control of the focus. AF will likely focus on the closest point in the focus area. You need to focus on the part which is of greatest interest. For stationary bugs perhaps focus stacking may work.
The greater the magnification, the shorter the depth of focus, period.
If you focus on the closest part of the subject, you are throwing away half of your depth of focus.
You can increase your depth of focus by stopping down BUT only so far, each lens has a 'sweet spot'. The DoF may be greatest at f22 but the image quality of the lens will have fallen off at that aperture so you have gained DoF but lost IQ. Your call... Sharpening can only sharpen what's there, it can't work miracles and over sharpening creates halos around the contrast edges.
I struggle naming species, AND stars! I have apps on my iPhone which help me to identify mushrooms, wild flowers, trees, orchids and butterflies, birds etc. I have no doubt there will be one which covers bugs. The creator of the apps I use are Mullen & Pohland GbR who use Isoperla to develop the apps but I guess there will be many more.
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Robert.