I did not use any camera sharpening...yet this does appear on original images, as shown. This is likely some "digital thing" with perhaps contrasts affecting it? Then again, this "halo" does not appear on other images taken with more varied backgrounds. Who knows, maybe it is atmospheric.. The little junk food beast shown here is in high cotton. A vulture of sorts I suppose. Thanks for all the input on this. Much is helpful but still a question lingers about the halo. Possibly the zoom of the original image and crop enhanced some digital artifact.