I need help with macro photography

I need help!
I'm trying to learn macro photography. I have a macro lens (Canon EF-S 60mm USM f/2.8).

Is it best to use manual mode? (I can shoot in manual)

AF or MF focus?

How do I get maximum magnification? I'm trying to get those really close up's of flowers,bees, coins etc, but, I can't seem to make it work for me.

I know absolutely nothing of macro, I do use a tripod.

Any tip's, or and advice, will be very much appreciated.

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Permalink Reply by Bill Clark on September 6, 2010 at 9:32pm

The tripod and small apertures are most important. Close ups have so little depth-of-field, fortunately the subject is not usually moving. Many of today's lenses don't close down as much as the old field lenses did. To get the smallest aperture possible, normally you slow down the shutter speed to get an equivalent exposure. You can also add more light to the scene, or at a last resort raise the ISO setting, but that suffers the image quality.
Focus toward the front of the subject, but not at the closest point, because you have twice the focus area behind your point of focus as do in front of it. Definitely avoid out-of-focus bright objects in the fore ground.
Shooting these macro shots really gives you an appreciation for those underwater macro pictures, but I think many of them are not taken in the wild.

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Permalink Reply by Vee on September 6, 2010 at 9:39pm

Thank you for responding, and for sharing that information with me.
It will take a bit of practilce, for me to get the "hang" of it.

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Permalink Reply by BoDiddles on September 8, 2010 at 12:47pm

Let's see some of your pics

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Permalink Reply by Vee on September 8, 2010 at 9:13pm

I will take some and send them to you

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Permalink Reply by Vee on September 9, 2010 at 9:43am

Hi Bo, this is absolutely awesome. This is what I am trying to learn. I bought the lens first, now to learn.
Here are 2 photos that I shot this morning.