A recent article in a model mag talked about muti-layering. Works well but takes a lot of work. A simpler method is a camera with adjustible aperature. I have an old Canon D-40X that I keep just for model photograpy. The kit lens stops down to about f/30, and it is a zoom lens!
Pin hole camera!
Bill
WOW. f30! That is quite the aperture.
I shoot with a Canon. It is kind of a point and shoot, but you can change the lenses. The highest f stop I can get is an f8.
Looks like I need to upgrade.
One thing to note: if you stop your aperture down that much, you’re going to need a reeeeaaallly long exposure time (aka slow shutter speed) to gather enough light for a decent photo. This is going to mean a steady tripod, and probably a remote or timer feature on the camera so that you don’t jostle it pressing the shutter release button.
Personally I find somewhere in the middle works best – on my Sigma 70mm macro lens, an F-stop of 11-12 and a shutter speed of 1 second or so gives me the right exposure, low ISO, and a good amount of depth of field for overall shots. That said, I still use focus-stacking in Photoshop in order to get rudder-to-spinner sharpness.
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For what we do both in the studio and at shows, we’re shooting usually around F22 with the shutter at 1/125 and ISO 200. If we’re shooting into a dark interior or going for detail shot, we’ll adjust the f-stop to F16. However, we also shoot with a flash in conjunction with lights. That gives us good depth of field for most models.
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