I have a Fujifilm Finepix S9100. I'm a novice, but a passionate one when it comes to photography.

I'm desparately looking for guidance on how to shoot close up and macro with better clarity. With the Finepix series camera, there are no lenses to be taken off, though I do have a macro/wide angle lense and a telephoto lense that can be added for more options.

I know the rule of tripod and delay shutter for taking pictures that do not include normal body movement that can alter the clarity in a picture. I also know of photographing in RAW (though I never really see any real difference in the shots, RAW vs JPEG...then again it could be the operator fault on that side). I have messed with appeture, speed, date stamp (ha, that one was a joke. no really)... but I am left wanting that high resolution picture of crisp and cleanliness of a great photographer (am I asking too much?)

Thanks in advance for any tips and advice.

Welcome to Caedes! ..

An example of Lykoi's work .. Funky Flower

Using "funky flower" as a reference .. try to look for subjects that can be separated from their background via a shallow depth of field .. this will, almost always, produce a more appealing image due to the smooth 'out-of-focus' area bringing attention to your subject ... an Example

Shallow Depth of Field is easiest to achieve when you have a long zoom lens...or you are really close to your subject. Hope this helps.

This looks like a job for Sir Nott...

1) More light = higher shutter speeds = Sharper
2) Higher the ISO = the more noise = more in camera noise reduction (you might want to turn it off, if it's on) = 'blurry' appearance
3) Slow shutter speed + subject that moves = Blurry Subject
4) Focus
5) If you are, say, 10mm away from the subject, it will 'move' more than if you were, say, 5 meters away. It 'amplifies' the movement.
6) RAW is uncompressed data, JPG is compressed : RAW has more color information, shadow detail, and more 'stuff' to play around with in photoshop : JPG and RAW will look similar if not identical straight out of the camera : JPG and RAW will start to look different with an increased use of post processing (photoshop).
7) While post processing, either in GIMP, Photoshop, Paint Shop, etc. "Always" sharpen your photo. In photoshop, use the unsharp mask or smart sharpen at a small radius but high %(but there are many other ways).
8) Generally, a couple to a few stops from full open aperture, the lens is 'sharpest'.
9) Clean your lens surface of any dust particles, etc.
10) Expose properly. Don't over expose - you will end up with pure white junk in certain areas of the photo. How do you expose properly? Uh, that's a whole 'nother subject.

Composition:

1) Fill the frame. I (usually) don't like flower shots where I see a small purple dot and a lot of grass.
2) Balance the photo. Pretend you have OCD; if one side of the photo seems to 'outweight' (in color, contrast, subject, content, distance from center, etc), balance it out on the other side.
3) Depth. One way to show this is to use a wide aperture (small f/#). In macro photography, I wouldn't worry too much about this since you are already focusing at very close distances which will blur out the background anyways.

PS: I looked at two of your images, and here's my new advice:

Turn off the in camera sharpening. Do it in Photoshop (if you have photoshop) instead.
Turn of noise reduction.
Shoot when there is more light, so you can use lower ISOs. Neat image/Noise Ninja are both good noise removal programs (there are others).

Your photos look good btw - not much to complain about.

Noah has pretty much covered everything for you there - safe to say that whenever you buy a camera – whatever model it is – you will most likely grow out of it and become a little jaded about its abilities.

Regardless of the current advances – compact SLR style cameras are not even close to competing with a good SLR attached to some nice glassware. More than anything else in your kitbag – the lens is the primary tool that governs image quality. It is better to have a cheaper camera body with a very good lens on it than a more expensive body with say a cheap kit lens.

I have an average, low quality camera.
The only way I can get as clear as possible is with a tripod/steady surface as you say..and plenty of light!

I've commented on your image.

Close-up and Macro is far-out fun!! Macro...get close, when you think you're too close...then get a little closer (no zoom)!! Portrait...I use that mode on my P&S (point and shoot) but stretch the zoom like RIGHT HERE !! ~~shameless plug~~ Here, I was about 8 feet away using my P&S on portrait mode but zooooming in on the raptors head 10 - 12x I'd say...blurs out the background pretty nicely.