I just want to wish you good luck too Danny. Not bad for first attempts. I know some will say only slide film will suffice..I personally like the graininess of the higher speed print film from time to time. It gives a painterly look to me. This type of film does print out nicely too. As for sellling to magazines..they will accept sharp focus 8x10 prints and there are new processes to turn print film into slides. I'm not familiar with the process yet, but, it's out there.
Tripods are a blessing..once you get use to taking the time to set them up..pain in the arse at first but you get use to it after a while. I carry my camera around on the end of my tripod like its a big baby:)
Reflectors work if you put them in the right place; altho; the lighting looks pretty good in this image to me. It's pretty sharp in focus too. Also using a DOF preview button on your camera is another thing to get use to...I've been told time and again and have started making it a habit to use it all the time.
Good luck,,coz there are many many subjects to work with when doing macro photography.
I've admired all your portrait photos these past few months. I'm just not that great on commenting on portraiture work tho. But I can tell you do have fun..all the poses..etc. etc.
Tho I realize you had a sufficient shutter speed and a fairly deep aperture, one of the best reasons to use a tripod is to leave no room for error when it comes to the shot being sharply* in focus when the shutter is released, I've taken to using a pod for any macro shot where i possibly can, despite the incredible effort sometimes required to get it in position. Failing that, flash (using a sync cord to get the flash off the camera and aimed at the subject instead of way past it, as it would if it was in the hotshoe), a steady hand waiting for the moment focus appears in the viewfinder, and a deep aperture can substitute for a tripod in many cases (tho at this magnification, not often) - tripods and flash both allow the use of lower iso films (topping out at 100iso as your fast film for this kind of work isn't a bad idea, the slower the better in general), good luck~