Feather and fern on moss

very original. great shot.

Remy, as for sharpness, the slide looks razor sharp under 4x high quality loupe. On my screen, however, it doesn't. I hoped that it might be just my laptop's LCD, but apparently the problem is with the scan. Unfortunately, I don't have a scanner and currently have no way to repeat the scanning exercise :(

With respect to diagonalzing the fern leaf, I thought about it, but finally decided that I prefer gentler composition (otherwise this already engineered arrangement looked too artificial too me.)

Eugene, I don't remember exactly which lens I used, but it must have been one of the two: Canon EF 28-135 at its longer end or Canon EF 100-400L at its shorter end. In either case, the minimum aperture would be at least f/32 if not f/36, i.e., -1 to -1¹/³ stop down from f/22would this alleviate the likelihood of diffraction negatively affecting sharpness of the image? How about the possibility of Heliopan MC Circular Polarizer filter contributing to sharpness deterioration?

Again, as stated in the subject line, Im just trying to explain / figure out where the problems originated and how to correct them; there are no excuses for sloppy image, regardless of why and at which stage the quality degraded. Thanks a lot for your comments and ratingsI appreciate your input!

I noticed certain resemblance between this feather, which I found on

the forest floor, and arrangement of fern leaves. Does this

juxtaposition bring it out well, or was there a better way to show it?