Oh, just tell Dobby to go iron his hands. ;-) To me, the exposure here looks correct because it gets across the silent-softness of the subject. It is a study in shades of gray going gently to pure white, rather than (the more typical) high contrast winter scene. The branches and berries are not stark black. It is not sunny, the light is not directional. The snow has some texture, but even where it goes completely white it seems to add to the softness as the DOF fades away. Then again, maybe Michelle had an entirely different intention when she visualized this photo in her mind, but just screwed up the execution? We'll never know. Can just appreciate any happy accidents. The question 'Chelle needs to ask herself is: "Did this image turn out as it was visualized in your mind when you pressed the shutter?" The answer is not one she need make public; but is key to her understanding of how well she is mastering her tools. Snow on dark branches is an even more difficult subject than a black cat in a coal bin; with the cat it is fairly easy to visualize the expected result, and just adjust the zones accordingly. With black AND white, both have to fit within the capabilities of the media. With a subject like this, I need to make several bracketed exposures just to make sure something important does not fall off the ends. I'm not that good at predicting the result. Since the light here is even, and some highlight blocking is artistically acceptable, my guess is that Adams would have given this about two stops over the average (like Michelle), and would have used normal film development. [In really strange lighting situations, without a gray card, you can substitute the back of your hand (WF...) and give about an extra stop. Take the mittens off.] I am a little questioning about using curves to adjust color cast; I usually just use the color balance sliders. I'm not sure what may be going on here with re-arranging the histograms, posterizing some ranges, etc. [We sometimes see these discontinuous histograms, with spikes across the whole range, but gaps with nothing...] Oops! I'm late for work... I've rampled... I'll go punish myself. I hope this is in line with what folks expect for "in depth" treatment. If it is just rambling I'll slink off.