I see what you mean. The original looks quite sharp actually.Even for 800 film. Obviously when you enlarge, that is where the artifact comes in. Sometimes you don't have a choice do you? Crop and improve the composition, or don't and have a sharper photo you're not happy with! The dilemmas of a photographer.
Andrew, thanks for the comments. Yes I agree to everything. It was a hand held shot. Silly me left the tripod in the hotel that day. Also, I ran out of slower speed film with only 800 left in may bag by that time of the day. I am also just getting used to the new film scanner. This was the original full scan so you can see I cropped in close.
Emmanuel, what I like about this photo is the composition and the macro "intimacy". The subjects are nice, but I can't get past the artifact that has come from the scanning or enlarging that you have done. Did you actually use a tripod or was this shot hand held? I tried a few flower macros hand held and they really didn't work for me.Maybe the original looks a lot better but I'm afraid it is a little to fuzzy for me. The way you caught them in the act is amazing. I didn't know this was how they mated. I should watch the discovery channel more.
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