Leaf Hopper & Caterpillar

The weather has been pretty interesting up here in Scotland for the past few weeks, and so have some of the insects

1. (Leaf Hopper)

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Like shot 3, the last one of the caterpillar looks crazy!

Sorry can't help with the sharpness issues, but i did think they all look a little soft.

I guess some other folk will be able to help

There are only really two things left that you haven't taken care of:

1. Shaky hands
2. Cropping

The flash can only stop so much movement. It gives you an effective shutter speed of between 1/800-1/1,000th of a second. You still need to have relatively steady hands to hand-hold that so close. It's much easier, but if you move too much it will still blur.

Crop: How much are you cropping these shots? And, as an aside, how much sharpening do you do? Most of my shots are uncropped, or cropped for aspect ratio. If you crop too heavily, then your shots will always be a little softer. It's just the nature of the beast, so to speak.