*"What I see on the camera matches what I see on the screen and what my printer prints for me"

*If you have achieved this without calibration and profiling...then, you have just experienced a miracle...

Not weird at all.....many Canon shooters are doing this specifically to be able to use Nikon's 14-24mm lens.

@Leeco;

***"The first option is a reversing ring that will allow me to use either or both of the 2 lens I now own (an 18-55mm Nikkor AF-S VR  and a 55-200mm Nikkor AF-S VR). That is a very cheap possible solution but I am not sure it will really take me very far in the right direction and what real disadvantages it envolves."

***You will not be able to use those lenses by using the reversing ring as they are "G" series lenses that do not have a manual aperture ring...which means you can not set the aperture in a reversed set-up.
You will need to get a lens that has an aperture ring in order to use them in reverse fashion.
You will also need to get a dedicated flash because with the high fstops required for the DOF...light loss becomes an issue....
When using a reversing technique you also lose the ability to focus.

Most of the macros in my gallery were taken with either a Nikon D70 or Nikon D300 using a reversed 24mm lens and SB800 flash.
There are several difficulties when using this method...should you decide to give it a try....send me an IM.

A few other points....1)most newer DSLR's now have live view capabilities allowing you to use the LCD screen.  (I have it on the D300, but I still prefer to compose in the viewfinder!)

1. Richard (Onslow) is correct....macro work is primarily a manual focus job!
2. The only way to get the DOF with a DSLR that you can achieve with a "point and shoot" is to use a focus stacking technique which further complicates things....in many ways, a point and shoot cam is the best cam for macro work.....

It's about time we got a Terragen guy over here!
Congrats Prutz!

@Danny
No problem....I hope to live long enough to experience those "senior moments"....LOL!

Actually HDR bracketing should always be done using "aperture" priority.
You set the aperture...the camera brackets accordingly by changing the shutter speed.

If you use "shutter" priority...you set the shutter speed, the cam will bracket the aperture....the problem with doing this is that each exposure now has a different aperture setting...which means each exposure has a different depth of field.

Also...remember to turn auto ISO OFF.

Miranda;
Not sure what cam you have....but with most DSLR's you can set the cam to do the brackets in a high speed burst....ie, 4 to 8 fps....that may help you a bit regarding potential movement of subjects.

The best way to get rid of noise is....not to get it in the first place...

As Joe said....if the black areas are "blocked out"....you have already lost detail.  You can't get back what was never there in the first place.  The Photomatix detail enhancer tries to bring up that area...but with nothing to work with, it can't perform miracles.

To prevent the black areas from "blocking out", you will need to expose for them properly with either;

1. Better lighting setup
   or....
2. Bracketing exposures

You have not indicated whether you are trying to tonemap a JPG or a RAW file...tonemapping a single JPG will give you the worst end result ( as the compression to an 8 bit JPG has already thrown out valuable data that can NOT be recovered by using the detail enhancer)...tone mapping a single RAW is "slightly" better.....tonemapping several properly bracketed RAW files will give the best result.

An interesting case indeed.....

@Gimi53;
Thanks for posting it here....but as this is directly related to copyright matters......why would Rendo not let you post this in the copyright forum here?

Actually....if you look closely, there are already some Rendo/ex-Rendo people posting there....

That said, the site feature to encourage copying and sending your image to others may not appeal to some....

An interesting comment from the link Rich provided;

"Mr Vallée also pointed out that members of the Royal Family were part of the Armed Forces.

*"Are we going to be stopped from photographing them?" he said."

*Again...I think the "intent" of this new law is understood and acceptable....but the loose wording and it's inherent broad implications are what is troublesome.

A mass demonstration is planned for Monday, Feb 16th at New Scotland Yard in response to the new law that takes effect that same day.
It will be interesting, as part of the demonstration area includes the "parliamentary exclusion zone".....

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/12/pap_the_police/

@Tom;
If I recall...you have been using the D200..correct?
If so, you have the ability to change your image parameters in camera to several "presets" to accentuate images.
In addition, you can also adjust hue, tone, saturation and color mode individually to your liking.

If you shoot RAW, they can all be adjusted after the fact using Nikon Capture.

I typically leave settings at default in cam, shoot RAW and then process from there on....

A very interesting question Ilona!!!!

But...somehow I still see a disconnect in the responses here.

Is it the Photography forum staff or the Copyright forum staff that review each photo upload and determine if it conforms to site guidelines/policy?...or both?