You're saying you will need lots of different paper ? 
Are you making your own profiles? or using ICC ones.

If you are using ICC profiles you only need to download a ready made profile from the papers maker. This will give you colour calibration that is acceptable for all but the most exacting needs. I would advise against making your own profiles unless you have the equipment and experience. 

You can however move up one step from the ICC profiles by having profiles specifically written for your printer/ paper combination by a lab. who specialises in this type of work.   They will ask you for a sample print of colour patches from files they send you. These are then returned to them for analysis by Spectrophotometer and they will write the profile from the result. This is a very accurate way managing colour printwork, each individual printer varies slightly in what it will produce and ICC profiles are standard.  This is imho over the top though unless you have a specific need for this level of accuracy.

You say it is your first time working with a colour managed workflow. My advice would be to calibrate your monitor first. Then decide which colour space you want to work in (your working space) and set your software to use this colour space. Most people use aRGB though there are others, all with their own merits.    
Next set your photo. software so it is setting the the colour handling. Next set  the rendering intent, for which most people use 'relative colorimetric' and select 'black point compensation'. 
Doing this you will be able to proof your images on screen before actually printing.

I used lots of generalisations here to keep it simple but I am happy to go further into any part if you want more information.  

It all sounds much more complicated than it actually is. Once you are used to using colour management your results will be much more pleasing and consistent.
Then it is time to start experimenting with different colour spaces and rendering intents :- )
 

Attached Link: Clink Hostel

I can clearly see the outline of the head  in both images.
I am sure your image will print well on a good printer.
 
hth

It is not possible to zoom with your feet for the perspective alters with distance from the subject.

a copy & paste from a post I made in 2006:

*If you try to compose all your shots with a fixed focal length say 50mm what happens is you are very limited in what shots you can capture:  if you move closer to get a tighter framing the perspective also alters and your subject has changed size in relation to the background and vice versa of course. So that great composition that caught your eye and made you first want to capture the scene has gone.
If however you have a zoom lens and stand still having seen the composition you want and increase your focal length to get a tighter framing what happens is the compositional relationship stays the same.

Example: You see a great vintage Bentley car parked in front of a house on the gravel drive. So you decide to capture the scene as you saw it from the end of the drive. Oh but the problem is with your 50mm lens you also get the rusty Ford parked next door. So you move closer to get a tighter framing, now you have got the house entrance and the car, but what has happened is the car is now appearing a lot larger in relation to the house and the scene doesn't look the same at all.
So you go back to the end of the drive change to your zoom lens and use that to get a tighter framing. Voila! The relationship between the size of the house and the car stays the same and you get the picture you saw.

Of course you could always have a prime for every occassion depending on resources - the money to buy them and a willing and strong assistant to carry your kit bag.

Thanks Shari I will certainly try this :)

If you go to the Canon web site and look at that lens, then click accesories, the lens hood they recomend is the EW78D.

Amazon link :  http://www.amazon.com/Canon-EW78D-Lens-28-200mm-3-5-5-6/dp/B0000AE66S

I am guessing Geert was possibly correct when he mentions diffraction.

In simplified terms the red/green boundary is falling across more than one pixel array on the sensor. There being twice as many green as red or blue pixel receptors it is going to be virtually impossible to get a perfect transition.  Your camera then decides what colour the image pixel should be by guessing from the data it receives from nearby receptors. 

Using a larger aperture should help with your type of camera. The trade off is you will lose some depth of field and will need to experiment to get a happy medium which gives you results you like.

I didn't know what it was either - a google search reveals this though.

http://www.treknature.com/gallery/North_America/United_States/photo154501.htm

Attached Link: Review of Cosina/Vivitar 100mm macro lens

One point to note is: It will not auto focus on your camera, you will always have to use manual focussing. Not necessarily a drawback with macro photography, but something I thought it worth you being aware of.  

You need to get one with a Nikon F mount then it will fit your camera.

Lee

A sobering tale, I salute you for having the courage and the generosity of spirit to post it.

There is only one thing I would take issue with: you think you are less of a photographer for using a compact camera than a dslr.  It has been said many times before, but it really is not the equipment that makes the photographer.

I, along with others, have argued in this forum before about the merits of using a compact camera for macros of bugs etc.  They are an ideal piece of equipment in many ways.  The dslr you now own, has its own advantages for different shots. I hope you come to realise the dslr is an additional piece of equipment you will use for other photography in the future. 

In the meantime my plea is that you continue to enjoy and get pleasure from using you compact cam to take exceptional macros of bugs.

Don't let this setback spoil your rewarding and interesting pastime. 

Richard.
  

I played.

For me the winner is pure portrait - tells me something about boys' characters and has no social commentary which is why I place it higher .

I was not certain Assorted Toppings told me enough about the individual because it has the secondary theme of a social commentary. 
Maybe it does say all there is to say about this Muslim  woman living, and selling ice cream, in a secular society but I can't help but feel that there should be something more. Perhaps if there had been someone at the counter she was interacting with her own personality could have come through.  Perhaps that forlorn look to the horizon and isolation says it all ?

Thank you Martin - they are better copies displayed in your link than in the newspaper article.

The exhibits are all of a high quality as you would expect. I feel some are particularly Australian in nature and perhaps I do not share or understand the emotions the photographers are trying to show.

I have not revised my opinion, that the right image won. 

I would also give a highly commended to: Assorted Toppings, which I like very much. I particularly liked the way the toppings had an Islamic style to their imagery, in the context of being an ice cream cone something universally recognised throughout the world.  It was this that I first picked up on when I saw the image.

Firstly it is not very easy to judge from the digital representations shown.

Looking at the image which shows the whole print, with artist and sons, it is clear the image in the article, and indeed the digital gallery,  is a very poor representation of the original.  The composition has been totally changed by cropping off the image in the article. Not only this, it is clear the light has been altered too, a lot of detail has been lost in the image in the article.

This maybe the case with the other portraits too, which is what makes judging an impossible task from these web images. 

However looking at the photograph which includes the original print I have to say the composition is very strong,  the strongest of all the images.   For originality this image scores well with me, many of the others are very cliched, with few signs of originality of thought or composition.
I like the way the subject is handled with the boys mirroring in both: position and character.  It gives the image a lot of dynamic energy to me. 

I disagree with the article and believe it is probably the best photographic portrait .  There is my initial reservations though that it is very difficult to tell from these cropped and altered images we have been shown.  

From me: Yes - top honours deserved .

set Black point with levels adjustment layer
Curves adjustment layer darken sky using mask
Curves adjustment layer add contrast to barn using mask
Local contrast enhancement (unsharp mask) layer
Smart sharpen layer
all above layers in luminosity blend mode.
 
Colour saturation increase layer normal blend mode.