Helpful vid I made and questions.

[wolfwing1]

For my own reference and others, I made a vid showing all of the formula's that came with the last version of Mandelbulb 3D and what they look like that have a significant look, so you can do a reference and see what they will come out as rather then having to run them each time.  It's either zoomed in/out so it's fully in picture, but most are from the reset position/zoom feature.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/bTBi3r1uKTk&rel=1&fs=1&hd=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/bTBi3r1uKTk&rel=1&fs=1&hd=1</a>

As for question, how do I set a picture as background?  I don't really see the option,i

Is there a better control over colours in the picture I'm seeing, a few of my pics I've wanted to make the browner parts browner, and greener parts greener to make it feel more like a real forest or plant but lighting doesn't seem to allow for that.

and third, this may sound dumb...but it's annoyed me a few times, is there a way to take a screen shot of the preview window?  OR make the main window exactly like the preview?  The low resolution and colour differences actually makes for some really pretty pictures.  I saw one that had a really organic look in the preview, but it was very metalic box like arcitecture in the main window, and prefered the preview.

[Xenodimensional]

Cheers, that is helpful indeed 

A background picture is set via the 'background pic' tab on the lighting panel. Just check the box and a browse dialog opens. You can set the default directory that opens by clicking on the 'ini dirs' button next to open/save and set a location in 'background pictures'.

You can adjust the colors on the 'object colors' tab on the lighting panel... click on the "diff" gradient and change the colors, you can adjust the slider to make the diffuse (main) colour stronger.

I too don't know exactly how to get images from the navigator window to the main window (when it's different), but playing with the far depth value (navigator window), fog, amb and shadow settings settings (ambient tab on lighting panel) and the Zstart/Zend (main windows) can get you close in some instances. But I have had some that look different structurally... which is what I think you're experiencing... it happens when I render some fractals at hi res size too... I suspect it could be the iteration settings?