I’ve always been into nature photography, specifically animals and insects, so I want to learn macro to get good shots of insect heads and stuff.

I’ve been doing photography for around 3 years now and think I’m decent at it cause I’ve gotten praise from my school’s photography teacher even with just iphone pictures. But I know a big part of macro photography is learning to photo stack and editing, but I don’t have editing software or the knowledge to really do that as of now. Is it something I have to learn right away or is it possible to do macro well without photo stacking and learn it later?

I’m a rising junior in high school and currently am doing a lot of classes and stuff already so I doubt I’ll have time to dedicate myself to learning editing software stuff right now. Should I start learning macro photography in general or hold off until when I have more time?

Also, if I do start it, what lens should I buy? I have a Canon Rebel T7 camera and, I’m looking for lens suggestions for beginning macro photography. Nothing too expensive or fancy, maybe around $200 or so?