P3D aperture when shooting stereo

["nathan kreuter" <nathankreuter@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks for the feedback on shooting wide open vs. not.  Sometimes I guess I 
take too much on faith.  But I was thinking about the situation more after I 
read everyone's reactions and came to several conclusions as to why my own 
photography had not been too adversely affected. 1) as far as the shooting 
in daylight- I almost always shoot with a circular polarizer which eats up 
2-2.5 stops of light. I also tend to shoot ASA 50 or slower and only 
occasional 100.  2) I don't trust the aged light cells in the meter of the 
camera I use for stereo and so I usually bracket a lot. 3) I'm very bad 
about not writing down exposures and so unless the subject is one in which 
depth of field is very obvious I don't pay attention to which one I keep 
after editing.  I'm lazy that way.

I think that George is slightly mistaken in saying that lenses are generally 
sharpest at the smallest apertures. Optically, lenses manufactured today are 
made to be sharpest 1-2 stops down from their widest opening.  There was an 
article published on this by the North American Nature Photographer's 
Association (NANPA) which I will try to dig up.

Another reason I haven't been too hurt by shooting wide open is that I 
haven't done do much "typical" photography in stereo yet.  I shot my first 
few roles that way, but the bulk of my endeavors have been in macro stereo 
photography of insects.  When sooting at 4:1 magnification even at f/22 my 
depth of field is less than 1/8 of an inch.  It can provide for some very 
surreal effects when only a dragonfly's eyes are in focus and the rest of 
his body looks more like children's fingerpaintings.

As far as the Ansel Adams disscussion of shooting at f/64.  I once heard 
that he did that also in an effort to reduce grain in his negatives.  I 
believe he even printed at ridiculously small apertures in this same effort. 
  Unfortunately, as we all know, he was barking up the wrong tree on that 
one.


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