Tulip Deconstruction 1

These images (yesterday’s Yellow Rose Cavern, and today’s Tulip Deconstruction 1) are my first attempts at using extension tubes. Here’s the story.

The van was in the shop yesterday — again – so I had to drive Donna to and from work. On the way home, we stopped into Harbor Freight Tools to get a heavy-duty cart to help hauling the sound gear for AcoustiSound around. Penn Camera is right next door to Harbor Freight. It’s a dangerous combination. Anyway, Donna wanted to get a set of extension tubes, which she did, and we spent a good bit of last evening playing with them.

The depth of field when shooting with a macro lens (Tamron 90mm f/2.8) and extension tubes is remarkably shallow, as I mentioned last night. The distance across the inner bits of this tulip might be 3/8 of an inch. And, even at f/8, only a section about 1/16″ deep is sharp. So, we’ve learned (!) that three things affect depth of field — aperture, focal length and focal point.

Also, we need plenty of working light, not just for the exposure, but for setting up the shot, since choosing the correct focal point is so absolutely critical.