I shoot my bird pics in raw mode and then I covert to jpeg. I have noticed lately that some of my birds pics are getting a halo around them. I do like to lighten some of areas under the wings to show the detail, so obviously I am doing something wrong when trying to lighten. I don't think I am heavy handed when lightening.

My latest pic of the Osprey which I really like is a good example of what I am talking about. I had this pic printed and it is darker than what is on my screen. I really want to get this pic correct, as I have a couple of other special Osprey shots that are just as good. I can go back and recapture this bird, if I need to.

Does noise removal effect this? I use neat image...free version
Shadow and Highlight slider in DDP do this?
Does Shadow and Highlight sliders in CS2 cause this.

Or is it my technique of high pass sharpening (which i thought was the best process - i find with the 400 lens, i apply very little sharpening 0.5 usually or sometimes 1).

Can anyone help me? Its interesting that I starting experiencing this when i starting using the 400 lens.