i just realized this was in the critique gallery ...
the only thing i would do is not print it with the rebate.
the poles are so light in the image the dark borders really
pull one's eyes away from the image to the edges ..
Ah thanks so much for the input! I have just signed up for the blind print exchange, but would love to do a trade with this one for ya! This is just the neg scan ... Will for sure be leaving off the rebate on the print.
Thought - will doing an 8x10 or 11x14 crop be acceptable? Will you miss the corners here of the square neg? I don't have square frames and have been asked to print this for display! What do you think?
Oh, and Rich - no filter here. If I remember correctly, this was wide open on the 50mm (f/4) at 1/250th ... I pulled the processing to maintain highlights. The 50 allows for pretty close focusing, and this might have been at minimum focus distance - which would allow for shallow depth of field.