chippy65 Loc: Cambridge

Ringflash can be useful when the lens causes shadow

no12mo

Weeelll, there is a little more to it. With macro photography, depth of field really becomes a study unto itself. Take some time with different aperture settings to get the desired effects. A shot might want a little more of detail should the shot involve, say, an insect and you want not only the front of the subject to be in focus but the rear legs. Nothing beats lots of experimentation. I'm wondering how many on this forum prefer aperture priority with tripod support so you don't have to rely on IS (image stabilization) which can give some weird ghosting effects as the focal plane shutter moves across the subject and your IS doesn't quite make it.

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

When I use my Micro lens I first use a tripod and have it with a movable track between the tripod and camera. I manually focus and ten fine-tune by moving the camera back and forth on the track. I like to work at small mf stop to maximize the depth of field.

Canisdirus

It can get quite involved depending on the subject. Static objects should be your friend in the beginning. Tripod the body, and shoot with a high F stop for DOF. If you post process, then stacking puts you in another league of possibilities. It's a game changer for static objects which are not flat. I can hand hold and stack by finding a center point and changing my focus (and locking said focus) and clicking again after I have centered back to my original point. Rinse...repeat. PS will do the rest.
Here is a single shot I took last week.

RedAdmiral Loc: Humboldt County, California

I take a lot of hand held macro shots. I often find it is easier to manually set the focus close to what I want and move the camera back and forth while looking through the viewfinder rather than letting the auto choose what it wants to focus on. That being said it requires a lens/camera with good manual focus capability. Alternately many macro lenses have a focus limiter which prevents the camera from automatically focusing out there at infinity despite the fact that the far away objects are a majority of what the camera is programmed to focus on.

carl hervol Loc: jacksonville florida

Just put it on your camera and use simple as that.

Sentinel4

Subscribe to Jim Zuckerman's news letter- nice article last month
Utube video by Don Komarchecko.
B&H has videos as well.
Sentinel4

chrisg-optical Loc: New York, NY

There's no shortage of good info on macro photography online (YT or websites like this forum), at the bookstore or at your library to save a few bucks.

Keen

There are many books / videos detailing the use of Macro ('micro') lenses. Basically: use a tripod, focus manually, and experiment with focus distances. Be sure to have enough light. A ring flash would be useful. Macro images will have a shallow Depth Of Field, so an insect's near leg may be sharply focused, while his head, or furthest antennae may be fuzzy. A 105mm lens lets you have more room to distance yourself from the subject than a 40mm Macro lens would, so you are less apt to scare away the bee, or whatever, you are photographing. Follow this as a general guide, and do a lot of shooting. Experiment.

Keen

The real "rules" for macro photography are the same as for all photography....use enough light, smaller apertures provide more DOF, etc. Beyond that, it is a matter of personal taste. You can use a tripod, focus manually, take time to check blinkies, expose manually, etc....or you can do everything automatically, without a tripod, and use a high burst mode to shoot many images as you move back and forth-closer to, and further from your subject-hoping to get two good shots out of a dozen taken. Camera shake, and mirror slap, will cause some blur if you handhold. Using a tripod, and mirror lockup, or a mirrorless camera, and a timed release, eliminates that. Flash helps, but can't save you every time. A diffused ring flash would be best. Using a tripod takes time, and is inconvenient, but can add sharpness. Hand holding is easier, and quicker, but can add blur. You can do macro as a photographer, or as a snapshooter, and get some good images either way. As a photographer, you will get fewer total images, but more of the images you do get will be keepable. As a snapshooter, you will get more images, but fewer of them will be worth keeping.

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

The Nikon 105G f/2.8 macro is a really good lens. Some photographers even use it as a portrait lens or a walk-around lens. Being able to focus really close is one purpose of this sharp lens. There is a closeup and a macro group forums here on UHH. I also suggest using Youtube to search for closeup and macro photography.