Detail in Insect Photography

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There are three ways to get detail with insects: a) Bellows and flash (camera at one end, lens at the other, all manual and nearly impossible to use in the field; b) image stacking and flash, where many photos are taken with different parts of the subject in focus and then combined for a very detailed result, possible but awkward in the wild; and c) extension tubes and flash, you do not get as close but the tubes enable your camera to focus closer, and flash both stops motion and illuminates your subject. The first two techniques need more time than solution (c) to carry out. The other important thing is to learn about sharpening in Photoshop and get plug-ins like NIK or Macphun that have tools for tonal detail, structure and micro detail. You won’t need many of those tools but one or another of those plug-ins will help pull out that last quantum bit of detail.