B/W Beech & Forest

What drew me to this scene initially was the contrast between the few remaining beech leaves and the different tones/shades of the forest trees. I took this shot with the specific intent to convert it to B/W (which I don't do a lot). What do you think?

5D, 24-70L @ 55mm, ISO 100, 0.3 sec @ f/16, + 0.3 exp bias, curves, levels, sharpen

This is one of your all time best Wayne, IMO. I think you need to send me the file so I can make as big a print as I can for you.

Nice, Wayne. I'd love to see a big print of this as well. Keep on working with the B&W!!!

Nice shot Wayne, it has a nice spring feel to it.

Thanks guys! It was good to get out last weekend for a change.

I was glad this area caught my eye on the way out. This was shot at 55mm but I wish I would have moved in closer and gone 24mm at f/8 or so to see if I could have blurred the b/g some while holding the foreground trees sharp. Not sure if that would have worked.

Bill, I may take you up on that but I'll need to know what it would run. I'm dropping some cash getting ready for my exhibit so I'm watching what I spend. Let me know & thanks!

Wayne:

If you want to get the foreground sharp and the background out of focus you need to use a longer lens and move back - moving in close with a wide-angle will bring that background more into focus, even at f8, and then you would change the relationship between the trees. I think the 55mm was fine - you really aren't going to notice that background much in a composition like this either way...