Hi all. I have a piece of nice bubbly lava from a recent (1974) eruption, and I have been trying to get some nice sharp images with as much depth as possible. The rock also has some very nice iridescence and coloration to it which I'm also trying to capture as best I can. I am using one of those portable light boxes with USB-powered LED lighting, plus a fairly powerful hand-held flashlight for extra illumination. Camera is my K-50, 18-135WR mounted, on a GorillaPod, shutter on 2-second delay. Manual Focus & ISO at 100 for all.
In Av mode, I set aperture to maximum 40, and let it set the speed. Things came out too dark (black rock on white background I imagine), so I went to Manual and started fiddling with it there. Finally got some shots that are good for exposure, but the focus is still just a little bit off (even using Live View and the magnified view). I had hoped that setting f/40 would compensate enough, but alas it did not.
Open to suggestions... Would it increase my DOF if I changed over to my 70-300 with its 'macro' option? Have to back it away from the subject to be in the range, so maybe depth would increase? I like the image quality from the 18-135, but if stays so shallow on depth that I cannot get the right focus... (Old crappy eyeballs don't help)
Last edited by RoxnDox; 07-06-2020 at 08:21 PM.