I simply stepped outside for this One Picture a Day. Marigolds are difficult to photograph. There is a quality to the color, a glowing brightness of some sort, that just does not carry to photographs well for me. I have a similar problem with other deep colors of some wildflowers like the purple of Ironweed. Increasing exposure or brightness to recapture that quickly leads to blown-out highlights. My photoshop-fu is just not strong enough, I guess. But today I was also playing with depth of field. I increased it to f/22, easily achieved handheld on this sunny day. I have been keeping my camera set on auto-ISO, think that a sharp image with grain is better than a soft image with no grain. I stopped at f/22 to avoid the diffraction of higher f-stops. We ended up with an ISO 1100, 1/200 sec (kept high on this 60mm lens for a windy day), f/22. Even so, it came in a little soft. I think it works to an advantage to give the petals a very inviting texture. They look like they are cut from felt. The camera was the Nikon D90, with Micro-Nikkor 60mm AF. The D90 will focus this pin-generation auto-focus lens, enabling its use with a variety of older, less expensive but high-quality auto-focus lenses.
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