In the example of the shot above (where I was shooting from 30 inches away with a 60mm lens at f/3.5) the calculator correctly indicates that I'm only going to have about half an inch in front of and behind my actual focal point that will be in focus. When using that DoF calculator, the 'near limit' and 'far limit' measurements tell you bounds within which you can expect reasonable focus, given the variables you entered. Thank you so much also for your tips! It sounds great and I will try what you suggested also. I really appreciate it! I will try to put the results of my experiment up for you to see. The tilt shift lens - what's so special about it? I know it can bend, how does that improve the focus than normal lens? Have you tried Subject will be in sharp focus up until 2.1 feet? I guess I didn't understand the jargon, far limit, near limit.Ģ. I put in for 60mm lens, at f/16, subject at 2 feet, it says the far limit is 2.1 feet, does that mean my The only thing I don't quite understand which value is It looks very useful and thanks again for the link. I might experiment with my alien bee strobes too.ġ. Window backlighting the food and maybe add a reflector or mirror to the left of the dish. I'm planning to use natural light from the Increase the depth of field when I experiment tomorrow and out the camera on the tripod. Your answer to my questions is right on the money :) so thank you so much. I didn't want the background to be in focus, and so this one was shot at f/3.2. I kind of like shallow DoF on food shots - they give you a lot of narrative control. Part of it's practicality, and part of it is the fact that a narrow focus area has a way of drawing the eye to what's important while allowing the background to be a bit less of a distraction. There's a reason that so many food shots are made with relatively shallow depth of field. in which case you'd need more flash horsepower. which means you're going to need a nice solid tripod. Oh, and as you stop that lens down for more DoF, you're going to need longer shutter speeds. If you get more ABOVE the food, rather than looking across it, you'll have better luck. and you'll get information about how much are you can expect to be reasonably in focus at various apertures.

just tell it about camera, focal length, and the distances involved. Right here is a handy depth of field calculator.

You don't want to go tighter than that unless you're willing to suffer some softness from diffraction. You'll get more DoF if you stop the lens down to more like f/11 or f/16. Depth of field is impacted by the distance from the lens to the food, the focal length (in your case, 60mm), and the aperture at which you're shooting. Your issue is all about depth of field, not focus points per se.

Food macro photography