I used a 10mm Kenko Extension Tube with the 50mm E-mount lens yesterday to get this photo of a hedgehog cactus blossom in my backyard yesterday. The extension tubes decrease the minimum focus distance – i.e. they allow you to move the camera closer to the subject than would normally be allowable by the lens. The downside is that they also make it difficult or impossible to focus on things that are far away – or even not so far away.
I took a number of exposures using different aperture sizes. I liked the depth of field at f/18, but the background was busy and distracting, so I blended an f/18 exposure with one at f/2.2. I used the f/2.2 exposure for the blurred background and the f/18 exposure for the blossom. The interior of the blossom is not as sharp as I would like. I can’t decide if this was due to movement of the subject or if I should have focused on the interior of the flower instead of on the petals.
Background: f/2.2, 1/800 sec, ISO 100
Blossom: f/18, 1/13 sec, ISO 100
