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Look through your viewfinder and position your camera/lens relative to the subject to give you the composition and magnification you require. Lock the tripod head securely. Switch to manual focus and carefully focus on the part of the flower you want in sharp focus. Fire the camera, preferably using a remote release or self timer and ideally locki the mirror up to eliminate any vibrations.
Just remember that at close distances your depth of field will be very limited. You're unlikely to get the complete plant in focus, so just focus very carefully on the part that you do want in focus and let the rest of the image fade off to a pleasing blur.
If the diopter is out then you have no chance - mine often gets knocked and moved as I get it in and out of the bag. Let the camera autofocus on something then adjust the diopter till the image through the viewfinder appears pin-sharp to you. Now you can follow the other advice!
Some of your macro shots are definitely a little bit softer that I'd expect them to be.
1) What lens are you using for these?
2) Do you shoot in JPEG mode or RAW mode?
3) If JPEG, is your in-camera sharpness set high?
4) Do you do any more sharpening on the computer, what photo software do you have?
Quote: Some of your macro shots are definitely a little bit softer that I'd expect them to be.
1) What lens are you using for these?
2) Do you shoot in JPEG mode or RAW mode?
3) If JPEG, is your in-camera sharpness set high?
4) Do you do any more sharpening on the computer, what photo software do you have?
I use a canon100 lens, have started to shoot in RAW have CS3 but not been very successful using it to sharpen. Is there a good plug in I could buy? Thanks. dorothy
Out of interest, try Digital Photo Professional (came free with your camera) you may already have it installed under Canon Utilities/DPP.
Screenshot here with sharpness set to 5
Load in a RAW file and set the sharpness to 10.
Do check your dioptre, (that's the adjustment on your viewfinder) I do it with the lens cap on, I look through the camera's viewfinder, looking at the numbers on the display and turning the little wheel until they're very sharp (this rules out lens errors).
If your dioptre is fine and your RAW workflow is fine, then I wonder if you've got a dodgy lens.
As chrissd says shots from that setup should be sharp to start with.
Quote: Also take a look at this thread here
And Pete`s link to focus stacking on EPZ TV.
18 focus stacked images @ 2mm per step giving a total depth of field of approx 35mm
No clicking 
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