work in progress 'tree'

This is a simple work in progress, showing some small steps in order to enhance one of my photos.

The original photo taken at the Dandenong’s (VIC, Aust). You can see fire has hollowed out the tree. I liked the contrast in colours from the black wood and green re-growth and the fact that even after the fire the trees have continued to grow strong.

FIRST:I like the framing of the pic so am not going to crop anything but find the colours a bit dull and flat.

SECOND: I enhanced the photo a little by bringing out the colours a bit so they weren't as flat. I think the greens and browns are more bright now.

THIRD: I enhanced the contrast a little so to show of the play of light more and obviously to enhance the contrast more between the light and dark colours.

FOURTH: I actually liked the photo after the third step but I wanted to make it look a bit more mystical, like fairies could live in the hollowed out tree. To do this I added a bit of soft glow affect to make the light/white.... well softer and luminescent.

FIFTH: even though it was contrast of colours from green, brown and black that I like, I was curious to see how this would look in black and white.

So colour or black or white? My final choice is in the Gallery section.