Silver Birch

[Cornfield]

A silver birch tree in the Black Forest, Germany on a very cold day.

[farbschlurf]

Nice idea, I like the subtle change in pattern of the different tree. Have you tried it monochrome? There's little color anyway and the brownish gras on the bottom of the image doesn't really add something, does it?

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

It's lovely as is, but I agree that a monochrome might be even stronger.

[RSL]

It's a fine shot: the kind of thing I try and usually fail to bring off.

If it were mine I'd convert to B&W, then go in with curves and try to raise the intensity of the brightest whites, without raising the lower white tones in the background. Problem is, there's snow on everything, and no matter what you do the snow in the background is going to come up too. The birch needs to stand out a bit more against its background. It'd be an interesting PP problem.

[degrub]

might be interesting printed with a warm paper or platinum/palladium toning.

[Cornfield]

Thanks for the constructive replies.

I shared this image with a client who owns an upmarket furniture store and he would like a large print in monochrome providing the foreground growth can be replaced by snow!  For a 6ftx4ft print mounted flush on Ibond the client can have what he orders

[cgarnerhome]

Here are, I think, the 2 options some people were suggesting.  These are obviously crudely done and maybe a little over done but I think it represents the general idea. 

[cgarnerhome]

The B&W

[PeterAit]

I love silver birches and needless to say we do not have them down here in North Carolina. If I may, I will add my own silver birch photo, taken in Iceland near Egillstadir.

[Chris Calohan]

I like the idea of leaving it more vaguely toward the color side but a little more dense in tonal value.

[32BT]

I like the color at the bottom since it acts as a kind of eyecatcher to tell the viewer that it's not just another faux-ir b&w attempt. I don't like the various toning suggestions since the interest is exactly in the different patterning. The toning down if at all, should be extremely subtle so you don't lose that tension. The patterns are btw the kind of characteristics that one appreciates when one has learned to appreciate and enjoy nature. So it stands to reason that it is desirable in a landscape image to capture such characteristics.

[32BT]

Oh, and btw: in my locale they categorise birches as "pioneer trees" since they easily catch ground and are therefore generally among the first trees to spring up on barren ground and are a good indicator of forestation. I suppose this image is a nice abstraction of that concept.

[guido]

The color image is nice but the B&W is magical!