May 10, 2010

How we shot an iris through a pinhole. (Flashing helped.)


In a dog-related incident, an iris flower was snapped off in the kitchen garden.

So, we brought the flower inside, set it on the kitchen counter, and lay down, right beside it, on either side, an SB600 speedlight (off-camera flash-unit), to provide lots & lots of light. And shot it with the 60 mm f/2.8 lens, as close as possible, with a very small aperture.

Why small? Because without a small aperture, shooting way-up-close with that lens yields a remarkably shallow depth-of-field, such that that very little of the scene is actually in focus.

How small? The aperture was set at f/57, which, in case you were wondering, works out to be an opening of a little less than one square millimeter, which is biggish, for a pinhole.

2 comments:

  1. How'd you get the aperture to be so small? Mine capes out in the 30's....

    I've got a 60mm micro-nikkor and an SB-600 just waiting! ;D

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  2. Dear "Anonymous,"

    Nikon claims the lens has a minimum aperture of f/32, but in practice the minimum aperture is a function of focal distance. Try focusing manually. Once you get in very close, you can get apertures of f/45 and tinier!

    Also, there are two 60 mm f/2.8 'micro' Nikkor models; mine is the older (non-"G") model.
    Hope this helps.

    Happy shooting,
    JP

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