I have been experimenting with macro photography,any hints and tips would be much appreciated.

I'm no expert, but looks like you are doing fine.

Look pretty good to me. Insects keeping nice and still for you!

to everyday users i would say they're fine ,the subject is clear, its focussed and has good detail ?????????

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Like them, shoot more shots and pick the best in terms of composition.

Shot 4 is great.

IMHO - no expert.

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Was shot 1 this way up when taken (cropped it a bit as well this end)?

Techy support will be along soon to advise further on others!

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Shot 1 was as shot, I have not moved it or cropped it, shot 4 was cropped and tweaked in photoshop, but as I have said previously I am new to this and any advice would be appreciated,

shot 4 is very very good.

TBH they are all pretty good

Andy

yeh baby give it to me...

sony a55 with 70-210 f4 beercan lens..in macro mode..

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Gah, insects.....the hardest thing is making sure the little bleeders keep still long enough. A tripod is pretty handy when trying to get a close in shot with a full macro lens, as the image is displayed on the sensor as 1:1, in other words if it is a 10mm bug it will be 10mm on the sensor, making camera movements more noticeable. As for composition, well you could try setting a 'trap' and see what comes along. Set the camera up with the tripod and compose the shot using a half eaten apple or something similar, then it's just a case of waiting to see what comes along for a chomp on the apple.

Don't be afraid to get in good and tight with those crops, but not too close as it starts to break the image up into individual pixels. Number 4 is a good shot but possibly slightly over cropped. Try and get the re-size correct for forum posting, if you leave it up to the inbuilt filter in the forum it will soften the image slightly, the last thing you want for good macro shots. If you click on your 4th image and view it how it was meant to be you will notice a bit of a difference, the shot appears slightly sharper, though it will highlight any over eagerness with the sharpness slider in Photoshop.