Sometimes you do want the sharp

Sometimes you do want the sharp

A few days ago I posted about Sharpness isn't everything today I'd like to offer a counterpoint in that sometimes you really do want a bit more sharpness and depth of field.

This macro of a small flower has some wonderful detail in real life, but in this case, the moving air on the day, the low available light and not using a tripod with the macro lens produces this soft result. While it has elements of acceptability - it still has the colour, shapes and forms that make up in my opinion a good composition it lacks the sharpness to bring it to life and make it a great image. This means its languished in my library rated low never published. Today I looked at it (I often go back to a random image from the past) to try and work out why I didn't like it and I've concluded in this one I really did need the sharp.

The reason I think that is we're missing edge detail from the petals, you can barely see the detailed stamen and instead see a light fuzz, you do see a bit of a cross in the middle of the flower but with a bit more depth of field (dof) [end to end sharpness] you would see so much more. This image simply doesn't do the wonderful creation of Gaia justice.