New tubes

A 1:1 macro lens PLUS tubes?? So you've got more than 1:1 magnification, perhaps quite a bit more!

There's good focus on the very centre of the flower, and the colour version has a gentle, pastel sort of hue. I struggle to see the point of mono flower photos, so the colour is my obvious choice ..... your mono one here lacks a range of tonal levels I feel , but we know that others will think differently

The water drop looks like some mysterious sci-fi moon base science station (there's some imagination for you!), but I guess that response points to the way that extreme macro can transport us into a different world.

The second one seems to have rather stray lighting, with little hotspots in odd places ....maybe it's the shape and depth of the subject that challenges there. I'm wondering if just a single big soft light source off in a typical portrait sort of position, say 45deg to one side, would do better with that one .....

Its good to see those tubes working and thanks for the peak into another little world

Tubes are great, I can't justify a macro lens as I know it would sit in the house. Nothing as bad as not using lenses enough!

Plus you can put any lens on them to achieve different bokeh, colour, you can change the magnification.

Mine are Pentax legacy manual ones, cost £12, and work great with a K28 3.5 with Live View.

Ringflash often does do strange things to images. I agree with Nigel about the 2nd one benefitting from a softer source off to one side. Don't forget that if it isn't going to run away or blow in the wind you can use a very long exposure at ISO100 with a tripod. Therefore, you can wave a smelly piece of gold or silver coated card (from a smoked salmon pack) around and paint it with reflected daylight for maybe 6 or 8 seconds. I've used 20 seconds before now.
If you want to use flash, I use Nissin 'synchro-eye' slave units to trigger remote flashes at times. You can use old units with them that would likely fry your DSLR electronics if connected to the camera. They simply need to detect a flash from the on-board flash so you can shield the subject from that with a bit of card whilst allowing the light to reach the slave unit. You can pick them up off Ebay for maybe a fiver - solid state and excellent.

Hi Derek

Great to see you making use of the tubes! I really must make the time to do more macro this year, it's one of my photography passions and we have a back garden that's ideal for it (lots of semi wild areas).

The lighting looks to be quite even, if a little subdued? Off camera flash is a great idea for macro, it's easy to do with some triggers such as the Apeture ones. I use a softbox in preference to ringflash because it avoids odd reflections, for example in the eyes of an insect.

I like the third image best, the water droplet adds interest to it. I'm no expert, but FWIW I always try to add a compositional element to my macro shots, i.e. to give depth and to lead the eye in. I think a lead-in is something that's not quite there in these shots, a slightly different angle can make all the difference.

Best regards
David