Nice shots Tom! I like the trees in the snow a lot.
On suppressing background light: here are two examples. The light one is uncorrected and the scanner balances the light automatically, trying to show everything;
"Showing" everything is not always a wise thing to do! :-)
This is one version with brightness suppression:
This one is not necessarily optimised yet but the tree branches in the back light look a lot better, plus the fact that the fallen tree shows a lot of detail that is simply present in the file.
Notice in the darker picture the details of the fine lila bushes or whatever it is in the background. . in the light version these "plants" are simply not even noticed.
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