notice your flashgun output is alittle to over powering.

play with your WB, use different K values till you get a good colour balance out of the flower.
you may want to adjust and play with the D-lighting to emphasize certain parts with/without shadows

for closeup/macro , you shouldn't be using a powerful flash, if you have to, you'll need to manually dial in the output to get a good fill-in balance.

head over to PM website and see how macro photography is done

good effort.
suggest, you try to take the pix with and without the raynox as the tammy is already quite good.
i feel the raynox although good in getting a greater magnification, but you lose both light and DOF.
for macro, you definitely can't use a normal flashlight, as you can see in your pix, certain parts are to dark, certain parts too much light, even at the lowest output, its still not quite right.

thing about macro is that you'll need to practise alot and look at your result and see if you can get better exposure,composition, there is no wrong or right, just different ways/angles of looking at it

to add, if you didnt have any difuser, maybe can use platic cup, A4 paper to diffuse the light and spread it out, you'll be surprise what macro shooters use to get light in or out of the pix!
Even with a thin DOF, you could get the pix as focused as you can depending on angle and perspective. That's the challenge for macro photog, keep at it till you get it !

This post has been edited by ojtee: Mar 26 2012, 10:29 PM

D7k and D300s both has the mcro AF adjustments.Suggest you don't play play with the micro adjustment, unless you have the calibrating ruler of some sort, or else, you may screw up the AF tuning more

D300s has a better AF cross sensor points, which can be adjusted, i.e. more X points more accurate AF but will lag abit if compared to less X points. These can be customised to 4 individual banks according to the genre taken. Another thing is the AF of the D300s is quite accurate in low light AF capture IMHO

if your work involves night functions, i'm sure you are able to charge 'premium' price due to OT work no?
a few functions sure can get enuff $$$$$ for a D3s yes?

your best pal for night shots( portrait ) atm would be a good flashgun, go for a good used unit if budget is tight.
or 35 1.8/50 1.8 should get you enuff light just before the sun sets