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Thank you for viewing my photo. I am still learning the intricacies of insect

photography and trying to get better at macro. This was shot at f11 and I

am worried to go with smaller apertures because of diffraction but I do want

better depth of field. What is the minimum aperture that you are willing to

go on a macro lens to get good DoF without worrying too much about

diffraction?

Any general tips on insect macro would be greatly appreciated.

Kyle, the main subject is razor sharp and some other details in the same focal plane also! My experience tells me that the distant petal can be never sharp whatever aperture used! About the diffraction, why don't you try f/32 and see what will happen! The expert on lenses here is Mike Palermiti and you may address to him!

Best regards!

PDE

Thank you so much for the advice and taking the time to post a comment Pierre. I am going to go out again to photograph insects tomorrow morning and I think I am going to try the smaller apertures all the way up to f32 and see if there is a sweet spot. I don't want to get the plant petals in focus as much as the whole bug because I have found that the legs will go out of focus or the antenna will be out of focus as well. 

I really like shooting macro at 1:1 and I want to go beyond that soon when I can get a reversing ring and a 28mm prime but I want to get my technique nailed down first. 

Comments like yours help me very much. 

Hi Kyle,

First, this is an excellent lady bug image.

Upon close examination, I do the beginning of sharpness loss even at F/11. This is not a critism of your work, nor is it due to your fine macro Nikkor used. (I have the same setup as you used here).

Looking at the left leaf edge that is in focus, the hairy fiber structures are a little soft. This by no means reduces your overall image, but it does clearly demonstrate to me that at F/11, the lens performance is decreasing a bit. I know this to be a fact because I test hundreds of Nikkor and other manufactured lens yearly in my optical laboratory.

Now, the lady bug is a great subject for stopping down the lens. This is due to the fact that there is no super fine detail inherent to lady bug backside. So, if you were to use a smaller f-stop, like F/22 to F32, the loss in the details  would go un-noticed with this subject.

Unfortunately, the best lens quickly loose their outstanding characteristics as they are stopped down. At the same time, for those wanting more DOF, stopping down is the only option within a single image. Knowing the trade-offs allows you to become a better technical imager.

You did a very nice job.

Best Regards, Kyle.