Okay... One of the videos I watched gave me the settings used here. I'll call them CUS. The major problem was the brightness. I am still playing with the f-stop, which I think is the issue. For this setting, they told me to use f-16 with a flash. I did that yesterday and got black images with brighter backgrounds. So for these, I changed it to a smaller number.

This is another of the CUS shots. When I try to make corrections in editing, they are even worse.

This is an unedited shot taken with the CUS setting.

This is a similar shot taken with the Bird and Wildlife settings. (B&W)

This is with CUS.

This is with B&W. It is way too dark.

This is a B&W shot.

This is the same shot after editing. This is the best I can get it, and it is still terrible.

This shot was also taken with the Birds and Wildlife setting. I need to figure out the best setting for making them lighter.

This is the same shot after editing it for brightness.

This is the original B&W shot.

This is after editing the brightness and reframing.

Another B&W shot.

Here it has been lightened and reframed.

This is an unretouched B&W. In this case, the sun was shining directly on the plant. It is not very sharp and gets blurry when enlarged.

B&W

B&W

B&W

B&W

This is B&W lightened in editing. I added it to show how thin Vinny is getting. I doubt he'll be with us this time next year.