Is this where the Architects of the mid-centuries got their inspiration for the ghotic cathedrals from? The high massive pillars of the beeches with their branches forming a steep roof or ceiling, the sun rays entering from high above... A few minutes after taking this shot, 3 deer crossed my path... One thing is for sure, walking through these woods on an early morning clears my mind!
I guess more of you may be curious as to what post processing I did. Actually I did very little... What you see here is pretty much how the shot came out of the camera. The only big change was the cropping I did, which led to the square frame (which displays better on on Flickr), and some minor brightness changes.
The three different sections in terms of light or brightness you can see are not artificial! The immediate foreground is relatively bright because its situated right before the woods, yet lies in the shadow of the woods as the sun is on the opposite side... The middle area in terms of depth is the darkest as to the left of the path there were a lot of pine trees which you cannot see in the photo, still you do see the extra shadow created by these trees. I made this darkest section a few percentages (3%) brighter and did the the oppposite to the furthest or deepest section. The far end is brighter as this section of the woods is the home of mostly beech trees which after having lost their leaves allow significantly more light into the woods.