Post processing is always subjective. We process our images to taste, and taste is personal, subjective. Furthermore, there seems to be a million ways to achieve the same effect in post processing. So, my way is certainly not the only way and your mileage may vary. This is how I process my macro images:

1. Since I take multiple stacks of the same scene (to make double sure I got the shot), and since my camera was moving when I took the stack, and since the insect may have also moved, I examine the stacks first. I look for composition, the pose of the insect, and most importantly FOCUS. The quality of your focus will be determined by how smoothly you moved the plant and the camera closer together as you took the stack of images.

2. I now choose the stack that I am going to process and load them all into DXO PhotoLab (DXO Pure Raw will suffice if you want to save money).

3. All that is basically done in DXO is noise reduction. You may say that there should not really be much noise at such low ISO values. That is true, but I just hate noise and love super clean images, so my first step is always to reduce noise using DXO. Their noise reduction is legendary and probably still the best today.

4. Next the stack is loaded into focus stacking software. Here I recommend three different choices. Luminar NEO, Helicon Focus, and a macro favorite Zerene Stacker. Even though Zerene Stacker seems to be favored by many, personally I do not use Zerene stacker because of two reasons. Firstly, I refuse to work with companies that charge you based on what you use your images for. What I use my images for is none of their business. They are my images and I strongly resent a company trying to lay claim to them is any form (or wanting to share in their profit). To charge me more because I sell my images is nonsense. Imagine buying a car and the dealer tells you that the car costs $10,000 if you are the only one to drive in it, but $20,000 if your friends join you in the car, and $30,000 if you use the car to Uber because you profit from using the car. I will never do business with any company employing this strategy. Secondly, their software seems pricey to me. Although it must be said that I find Helicon Focus a bit pricey too. Either way, this software will take the in focus parts of each image in the stack, put them together and output an in focus image. I export the file as a DNG file.

5. The DNG file is now processed using Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop. The final image is saved as a TIFF file for future use and as a JPG prepared for web use (internet).

That is it. I hope that this series on macro photography was helpful.