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<blockquote data-quote="BF Hammer" data-source="post: 836783" data-attributes="member: 48483">You write in a lot of detail in your question, but we are missing some information still. A sample of one of your photos will help so we can see the exif data and understand your exposure settings.At 1:1 distance for a macro lens, your focal plane can be quite narrow. That means your gem in 3D space is deeper than what is possible to be in focus. It is referred to as Depth Of Field. You make DOF wider by shrinking the size of Aperture (increasing the f-stop value). This works against you in underexposing the photo. It is a compromise situation.A tripod is a must. You will be adjusting shutter speed to such long times that you cannot hold camera steady by hand. A D90 has poor ISO low light performance compared new models also. The noise is very visible above ISO 400. Entire books are written for this kind of work.There are also techniques for combining multiple photos in a focus-stack that can help. But this demands using a tripod so there is no movement between photos.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="BF Hammer, post: 836783, member: 48483"] You write in a lot of detail in your question, but we are missing some information still. A sample of one of your photos will help so we can see the exif data and understand your exposure settings. At 1:1 distance for a macro lens, your focal plane can be quite narrow. That means your gem in 3D space is deeper than what is possible to be in focus. It is referred to as Depth Of Field. You make DOF wider by shrinking the size of Aperture (increasing the f-stop value). This works against you in underexposing the photo. It is a compromise situation. A tripod is a must. You will be adjusting shutter speed to such long times that you cannot hold camera steady by hand. A D90 has poor ISO low light performance compared new models also. The noise is very visible above ISO 400. Entire books are written for this kind of work. There are also techniques for combining multiple photos in a focus-stack that can help. But this demands using a tripod so there is no movement between photos. [/QUOTE]

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