Mushroom C&C

K_user

Ok, they aren't the s*xiest thing in the world and the photographs will never win awards But I'm venturing into the world of macro-lite* and would appreciate any and all opinions/comments. Go on, be brutal, I can take it!

(*Read as "up close and personal" rather than true macro)

Tallon

They look magical / fairytaleish
I like them

paulusdu

They are pretty damn cool shots

Thecageyone

I like th last 3, strangely I don't like the first. It's the perspective - mushrooms look best from the side

I do up-close-and-personal shots too, since I don't have a true macro lens. But good enough results are very possible without spending a small fortune.

bubonicus

Tallon wrote: »

They look magical / fairytaleish
I like them

Magic and wonderful.:D

Hi OP,

Did you take these recently and a rough location?

K_user

Thanks all.

Tallon, had to laugh at your comment, the first thing I thought when I was doing the PP work was that I wouldn't be surprised to see a fairy sitting under one of these things!

Thecageyone - Huh, who needs true macro? All we ask is for a frame filling shot!

Bubonicus - They were taken yesterday in the field next to my house, in Galway. The horses that were there moved, so I took a chance on taking a walk, this was the result.

Thecageyone

Agreed on the ram filling, try telling the macro heads around these parts that though! :rolleyes::D

AnCatDubh

These are nice.

You've nicely and imho appropriately isolated your subject without needing to crop the bejeezuz out of them. Simplicity works great in images. Our brains generally can't process complexity too well. Also, the dominant green with creams/browns I think is pleasing, serene, and ooze calm. So to me, they sit well.

Where I think you may have a little work to do is in the appropriate depth of field space. I feel that all images have the depth of field inappropriately narrow, and that it would be more appropriate if your area in acceptable focus was wider.

In addition, there is some garbage artefacts visible throughout which I think would be better minimised (if you can) as they are distracting and imho take from the image. There is a tight balance from documenting the scene and manufacturing a product. It depends on what you are after. What i'm referring to is the additional foliage visible (particularly strong in #3).

The angle in #1 I feel is the best of those presented here. The others are a little 'head on' which makes them repetitive. You have so many different possibilities when going to shoot in terms of the angle - to shoot mostly 'flat on' will lead to what will appear repetitive shots when presented as a sequence.

Also worthy of mention is that there is good definition in the images. Where in focus and within the depth of field referenced above, the content is clear; without jarred edges. So what i'm saying is that you've gotten in there close and you've given yourself lots of image to work with.

I see from the exif you've the S5 Pro. That's pretty cool.

Anyhow, overall - i'd say good work done with a few areas to think about for improvements but very presentable images all the same.

elven

If I took the third one, I'd be willing to put it on paper. That means I like it a lot

One bit of advice - don't be scared to do a bit of 'gardening' when you're shooting. Pull out bits of grass and dandelion heads that are in your way. A certain amount of surrounding greenery is cool, but it's annoying if ou've got an excellent shot 'if only that flower wasn't in front'...

Fionn

nice work!!

can i ask - is the DoF what you wanted? i've tried this in the past and wanted everything in focus but its difficult to get that! usually ended up with too thin a DoF.

K_user

Thanks all, I kept meaning to get back and answer this thread, but something came up every time!

AnCatDubh - Thanks for all the comments. Originally I did think about going black and white with them, but once I started PP’ing the colours where too good to lose.

I understand what you are saying about the DOF, unfortunately the narrow focus was down to some uncontrollable factors - wind and natural light! I needed the shutter to be as fast as possible, so on average they were shot at F6.3, at 1/180, at 65mm, on something about an inch tall, meaning the DOF was always going to be small. But its something that I might look to improve with some more planning in the future. Wind break would be helpful, also clamps, a scissors…

The sequence does need to be improved. I guess the best way to work would be to pick 5 different angles and pick the best 3 or 4 for the set. Again a bit of pre-planning.


As for the EXIF data, a guy from boards recently called me an non-conformist - I guess its true! I liked the sound of the Fuji when I first read about it, which was in and around the time I was looking for a new camera. And it hasn’t let me down yet. The only complaint I would have is its RAW processing speed. But for the most part that doesn’t effect me too much, a few extra seconds for me to consider the next shot.


elven - Thanks, I can see at least one of these making an appearance in my next photo book…whenever I get around to getting doing one up.

The 'gardening' is a good tip and one that I’ve learned from, a scissors has been added to my kit bag and I’ll be getting clamps next time I’m in town.


Fionn - As I mentioned above the DOF was more to do with the situation than a requirement. Had I had a proper wind break and my mini tripod I might have gone for another option. In saying that I’m fairly happy with the results. As Tallon already mentioned there is a kinda fairytaleish look to it.