first outings with extension tubes

[Basalt]

I've dusted off my old cosina macro lens bought orignally for my D50, bought some cheap extension tubes and put it on the d3100, it's reawakened my joy for macrophotography. These were all shot hand held on the way to work - I cycle through a lot of fields and woodland so set off twenty minutes early each morning to catch the morning dew and bright morning light. I really must get a blanket to lie on rather than sit in the lab in wet muddy clothes all day.
These were all hand held as the subjects all appeared to be deliberately places to stop me using a tripod.
All were around the f8 and 1/30sec mark, I really should take notes when I go out.

 

[Judobreaker]

That first one is f/8?
DOF seems a bit too small for f/8...
In any case that first image could use a larger DOF.

The other 2 seem to be working fairly well, although you might want to try and get your subject off-center. You have them quite centered in your photo.

 

[Dracaena]

Your shutter time needs to be shorter in my advice. The first picture isn't really what I call sharp. Keep on trying.

 

[Basalt]

Like I said with the F stops - I didn't write down the settings, and the camera won't record them on a manual lens so I'm relaying on memory, which doesn't work for 40 odd shots.
The fly was a pain the rear - I couldn't get the shutter any faster without loosing even more depth of field, the fly kept moving ( probably 'cos it had a lens an inch away from its face ) and it was windy. A ring flash/led light is on my shopping list....

It's been dull and damp here for the last few days or I'd have been out again, I'd like to take a shot that exploits the inverted image of the lake in that water droplet a bit more.
thanks for the tips

 

[Overread17 5]

Avoid the LED lights, from what I can tell they don't have the power to really help get a clear sharp shot the same way that a flash can. Flash itself gives you a sharp shot (when it dominates the lighting) because the pulse of flash light is exceptionally fast so it lights the subject in that split section thus giving clear details. LED lights give constant light, good for helping with focusing and providing a bit more light for video; but because its not a pulse of light you've got to use a very fast shutter speed to get the same clear details (and from what I can gather the LEDs just don't have that kind of light power).

A good speedlite flash on a bracket would be my advice; ringflashes are good, but can give very flat lighting and the shape of the flash makes them hard to diffuse. In addition a ringflash for macro is pretty much limited to macro work; whilst a speedlite flash will give you a flash usable for almost any field of photography.

 

[Edsport]

What was your ISO? Couldn't you bump up the ISO to get faster shutter speeds because your shutter speed is way too slow for sharp photos unless you get lucky....

 

[Basalt]

Thanks for the heads up on ring leds. I have what used to be a reasonable flash ( adjustable angle and all that ) somewhere around here from my film days but it doesn't work on the nikon so I'd basically given up on flash - time to rethink.

I forget about ISO this was 200 - the daft thing is, when I used film I kept in a wide selection right up to 3200 but since I went digital I rarely remember that I can actually change it. I'm tempted to put a post-it on the lens case with just three letters written on it.

Thanks again for the much needed advice.