Sorry for doing another Christmas Cactus but Christmas is coming, it's too cold & windy to go out, and I want a nice controlled subject for my D300 tests.
I finally managed to get the D300 attached to my ball head by using an old base plate from my D70s; not perfect but it works until the new L-bracket gets here.
Tests today were with the 18-200 VR lens with a Canon 500D closeup lens attached. The shots were made at the near end of the focus distance - but no where near as large as possible (this is at 75 mm, so the lens combination is capable of showing this at twice this magnification).
Examined VR off vs. on using the tripod thinking that it might make a difference - but found none in the results.
Experimented with the D300's Picture Control feature. Stay away from VIVID. It should be labeled GARISH. This was shot using the Standard setting.
As a final step, experimented with the new Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0. Several of the CEP3 filters allow you to specify a center for the filter (other than the center of the frame) and I used two of them here. First I used the Lighten/Darken Center filter - with the center near the middle of the pistil (the white thing) - to make this area a bit brighter and to darken the periphery. The 2nd & final step was the Vignette Blur filter with the center placed near the same spot as the previous filter. I call this the software Lensbaby (and I still don't care for 99% of the images that I see created by a Lensbaby).