I can use one those graduated filters in Photoshop right Travis, using channels or layers I think?
Thanks for the compliments guys. I was fishing for constructive comments, and you guys provided . . . thank you! I want to do more work to it technically before I blow it up gigantor size. The composition I feel is nailed, I did do some cropping to it after I made the initial scan, tried making the harsh lighting drop into the background, and made the volcanic rock and turtle details pop more.
Like I said, this pic I posted here has way less detail and sharpness. The big file has been relegated to my Mac's hard drive as a PSD file. BTW, initially I felt there was no need to scan any higher than 300 dpi because when I do get it blown up it will more than likely be printed on some form of thermal imaging, dye sub or inkjet printer, which uses PPI instead of DPI. Having been out of the graphics business for almost 7 years it's hard to say what media large format printing devices use nowadays. I may re-scan at a higher rez just in-case. Any ideas or thoughts?