why am I out of focus

Hey everyone, this is my first post on the macro thread all though I have posted a few other times. I am really just getting started and love photography, especially macro. I bought a Sigma 50mm macro and have taken lots of shots (unfortunately non I can post cause I am at work, working hard ). Anyway I always get real close to subjects, flowers, bugs, etc. And I always get just a portion in focus. Is that just the nature of macro that you cant get it all cause your so close? I have seen some photos and everything is sharp. You think that is from using longer lenses and being far away? Thanks for any help or suggestions. Maybe I can post a photo later for an example....

It's one of the problems of macrophotography- very narrow DOF. You need to try to get the aperture down to around F11 to improve this by either using flash or upping the ISO.
As an aside the DOF is the same for any given aperture at any set magnification no matter what lens(es) you use to achieve it, so no it's not because you are using a 50mm lens.
Brian V.

It's taken me ages to get my first shot of some eyes, I have had the same problem as you and think Macro has quite a steep learning curve. As Brian said my shots are at F11 and with a flash, I was having to try it with natural light at first and just couldn't get the required DOF without introducing camera shake, unless the subject had plenty of light.

Good luck.

Are you using ring flashes I assume? Can you give me an example of something you might shoot. Lets say a flower outside in the middle of the day with full sunlight. What would you make your settings (estimate)..

Thanks so much, I have gotten a lotta great help from everyone

Not using a ringflash - you an see a pic of my flash rig here
http://www.flickr.com/​photos/lordv/29274672/
With this I normally shoot in manual mode F11,1/200th ISO 200 with the flash in ETTL mode. I have however recently been doing a lot of natural light shots and have been using F11 ISO400 in AV mode and have been getting reasonable shutter speeds .
Brian V.