In article ,
Bob Williams wrote:

Donn Thorson wrote:
An UFO: Unidentified Flowering Object...


Hi Donn,
Please accept this critique in the spirit in which it was given, ie.,to
help you produce better macro shots of flowers.
You take a lot of Macro shots of flowers which are my favorite
photographic subjects. But for some reason, the vast majority of then
are out of focus and lack sharpness.
Perhaps part of the reason might be that you are shooting at maximum
aperture and the depth of field is extremely shallow. But on many shots,
including this one, the central image itself is out of focus.
Perhaps your AF control is faulty or if you are using manual focusing,
the diopter setting on your eyepiece may be set incorrectly.
From the picture of your Macro rig, which you recently posted, it seems
that you use your laptop as your viewing screen. One would think that
this would give you excellent control of image quality before tripping
the shutter. But something is awry.
See if you can figure out why the images are not sharp and remedy it as
best you can.
I enjoy looking at your images but would enjoy them much more if they
were sharper.
Good Luck on your efforts.
Bob Williams

You are totally correct...and I don't mind being criticized...but I
never do that to others...be careful when you hand out unsolicited
advice.

FYI: Although it appears I am somewhat new to digital photography, I was
trained and degreed in film photography. I presently make my living
doing technical publications, which includes doing industrial
photography for major corporate clients. I worked for General Motors
Photographic for a number of years, and I have over forty-years in the
business. Presently my equipment includes a medium format Mamiya RB67,
Canon EOS 1N, Canon EOS 650 and my Canon Digital XTi and I have a couple
of dozen different lens. I know a little something about photography.

To clarify...
(1) Any photos I posted that were older (before 2008) were done with
point and shoot cameras that had between 1.3 and 5MP. Naturally those
cameras don't take "sharp macros" in comparison to modern digital
equipment: Even when manipulated in Photoshop.

(2) I run all pictures thru Photoshop...or Aperture...and reduce their
size, adjust their appearance, and save them for the web to reduce their
physical size. By saving them for the web it reduces the appearance of
the pictures significantly from the originals. If I were to post them
smaller, as many do...they would sharpen them up a bit.

(3) The nature of a true macro lens has a bearing on the focus of the
object, especially the closer you get to the photographed object.

enough saidŠ

-Donn