B+W... and colour

[sfage]

Am I missing something? I am trying to create a triptych of poplar trees in autumn. I want the leaves to "pop" and I want the sky to be black and white. I find myself going through the "arduous task" of doing an hour long "magic wand selecting festival". After all is said and done, it doesn't look as razor sharp (around the leaves) as I would like it to be.

Is there an easier (and better) way to do this that I don't know about?

... I'm close... but... "this ain't it".

HELP!!!!

One thing I "did" find -regarding a subject like this- is that it's gotta be at most, 1/1000th of a second. 1/2000th is even better. The leaves will flap around and screw everything up!!!! This is 1/500 and that's one of the problems with this image.

You see, I need nice cloud cover to do this but along with nice clouds comes nice wind. Of course, that will cause the leaves to move all over the place.