This is one of very few images I've taken with the express view of ending up with a black & white final result at all, let alone a particular, obviously manipulated effect. Looking at "before" you'll understand why it wasn't the "keeper"! At least it was "exposed to the right".
If you want to see your sensor dust in all its glory, do a super-high contrast manipulation like this. Learnt to clone on this image.
Michael Kenna's tree images directly inspired this. It's not plagiarism if you acknowledge your sources. Well, that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it.
It does look nice in B&W I’m kind of surprised you didn’t pull some of the foreground detail out though
No, I was after an almost-but-not-quite-silhouette look, Joseph. I've got versions like that
Chris - you know how I love moody and this is MOODY! I love it! This is a favorite for me!