Yeah, when dealing with super close-ups, you NEED alot of light, and perferably a tripod or something to stablize the camera on. What I've ended up doing (not the right way, but a means to and end anyhow...lol) is taking a TON of shots and usually one out of the mix will be in focus (because, even WITH a tripod, the scaley subject doesn't always like to stand still). Also, it helps having a larger megapixel camera, because then you can always just zoom in and crop to show just the point of focus, lol.
These first two shots were taken with a Macro lense on my Nikon D50:
I've started just using my kit lense (18-55 mm) for scale shots and have been having better luck with it. You can get away with not having a tripod when using this lense at times (with the macro, the slightest mm of movement seems to blur things).
Again, I'm still cropping the HECK out of things. That BP scale shot originated from this pic:
I know nothing about photography...every time I enroll in a begining class somewhere, I end up getting a job and have to cancel. But the beauty of shooting digital is being able to expirement and take endless amounts of photos! Just shoot and shoot and try to keep track of what you did each time and what works and what doesn't.
