shelland wrote: I am far from a macro expert, but I dabble in it. A couple notes on pure photography principals:
1. Are you hand-holding? If so, 1/3 of a second is way to slow for shutter speed. The rule of thumb I've always heard is 1/50 or faster for hand-holding. Certainly some may have steadier hands to go a tad slower. If using a tripod, this won't be an issue unless outside and wind is moving the flower. At 1/3 everything needs to be very still.
2. If you're manual focusing, it's certainly possible you're just not getting it in perfect focus.
3. With a 40mm, I'm guessing you're very close to the flower to shoot this unless you cropped a lot. If so, keep in mind depth of field. Shooting f/5.6 very close to the subject is not going to leave the entire flower sharp. That's not a bad thing - depends what you're looking for. If you want an artistic look with only part of the flower sharp, that's fine. If you want the whole flower in focus, you're going to have to go with a smaller aperture (larger number) to get a larger depth of field. Not sure what that lens allows, but try all the way up to f/22 (for example) in increments to see the results and pick what look you like most. Of course, to let in less light and get larger and also use a higher shutter speed you're also going to increase that ISO quite a bit (or have more available light).
It could be a combination of all 3 of the above.
Good luck!
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