This is my great-grandmother's wedding ring. I've been experimenting with my long-awaited D200 and 105mm VR macro lens. Took this shot at 1:1 and am pleased with the results, but would like to know how to get more contrast in this image. Let me know what you think.
More details: shot in monochrome, JPEG fine mode at f57 for 30 seconds. Manual focus, built-in flash (front curtin), and applied long focus noise reduction. Focal length 105mm with a cirular polarizing filter, spot metering mode, ISO 100. Finally, I used Nikon PictureProject to lift the exposure of the darker areas (D-Lighting HS function), without affecting the correctly exposed areas, then brought up the overall brightness by +5.
Sorry that it has taken me so long to get back to you. Thanks very much for your sage advice! I have read through it several times, and will take it all into account the next time I attempt this shot.
Hi, Laura! AFAIK, the very small aperture you've used may cause diffractions that interfere with contrast and detail and, looking at this picture it seems you've reached that limit. I think you should take the same shot trying different apertures starting from f/8 until you see a lack of sharpness. You may mount the camera on a tripod and, if possible, change aperture and shoot using your pc. To increase DOF, you should loose a bit of magnification by moving slightly away from the subject if diffraction caused by the small aperture is unacceptable. In this case, a second light source may help in giving the subject a more intense 3D look. Finally, long focus noise reduction is a feature of your camera software and I think that a camera must be used to shoot; postprocessing will give better results if made through a more powerful photo-retouching software installed on your PC (don't know if Nikon PP has something like this but, if the answer is "yes", it's certainly better and faster than the onboard camera function. Wow!...this is not a comment; it's a poem! I hope you may find something interesting inside it. Best regards and many thanks for your kind comment. Paolo
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