A Short Course in Macro Photography

What’s the trick to getting monster images of the little buggers in your yard? How do you get shots like this:

Macro picture of a fly

This tutorial is intended for the shooter that understands the basics of photography, but who may be unclear as to which hardware is necessary to capture macro images successfully. Some of the discussion is the author's opinion (i.e. "reversing rings are harder to use"), so it may be that as you explore macro, your opinion may vary. So if a certain technique works for you, that's really all that matters. This is a non-technical guide, so if you already know this stuff, more techy-oriented guides are available elsewhere on the web. If you have a desire to get more into macro but are not sure what you need, you might find the info you need here.

To take exceptional macro images, consider refining your illumination, magnification and focus strategy.

So let's start with illumination, since everything sort of hinges on seeing the subject.