Help needed - my first mushrooms

[Pink Dragonfly]

Maybe I should have posted this in Critique but I've never posted there before and I'm a kinda shy girl :blush2: and feel nicely at home here at N&W

I have just found and photographed my first mushrooms and I want to submit a photo for a "Colours in a grey season" project but I don't know which to choose...and in one case whether to crop it (in which case where) or not.

I have not done any PP apart from a teeny bit of sharpening (not even sure they needed it, I sort of like the softness for the mushrooms).

Here's the one I'm contemplating cropping, and one cropping attempt, but I'm thinking maybe I should just crop a bit off the right???

[Pink Dragonfly]

And here's the other one, different angle, and after I'd cleaned the bottom mushroom a little bit!!!

Which do you prefer and any suggestions to light, contrast, saturation etc etc???

All advice greatly appreciated, thanks

Mette

[gotrocks]

Hello Pink Dragonfly,
Remember me? You were my first reply after finding this site.
I like the second best of all. My opinion...Does not need any help.
Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas.
Norris

[Martin Brazil]

I prefer the second one because of the different angles the mushrooms come out at. In the third they are all similar angles. Thats the one I think you should work on but what you should do to it I don't know.

[Pink Dragonfly]

Hi Norris, of course I remember you, the beautiful blue dragonfly Glad you are still hanging out here Thanks for your posting opinion! And a merry Christmas to you also

Thanks, Martin - I see what you mean... The second one is a cropped version of the first one, I'm just not sure whether I could have cropped it differently? For example, just crop a bit to the right and also top and bottom a little, leaving the space to the left of the tree?

Mette

[Dylan8i]

i think i like the 2nd one better. do you have any more angles? with mushrooms its easy to spend an hour or more taking different angles with lots of settings, cause they don't move :-D id like to see an angle with the camera right next to the tree looking at their side, and straight on from either up higher (looking down) or lower. I think one of these three would be my favorite view of mushrooms in the formation (or at least how i would shoot it).

there is also possibility of shooting the very top clump or the bottom two seperatly and getting fairly nice comps.

[Pink Dragonfly]

Dylan, thanks for looking! When you say the second one, do you mean the cropped version of the first photo? Or the last one? The last one is actually taken from quite close to the side of the tree, and then I took one right close to the tree but then you loose the greeny streak immediately right of the mushrooms which I quite like. I also took a close up of the bottom clump, but then I loose a lot of bark which I thought was rather nice. But I'll go have a look and see if they are still there soon. I didn't think to look from the bottom up And I couldn't really take one from above as they were placed at my eye height!

Mette

[Pink Dragonfly]

Martin, you meant the middle one, when you said the second one, didn't you?

Mette

[A.M.D.A.]

Hi Mette,

Firstly -- you've received some very good advice from Dylan.:thumbsup:

I think that these shots are mostly OK, kind of "artistic", but here are some tips for improving: The mushrooms are a tad small -- cropped version being much better, but not quite perfect. Something like having the largest mushroom fill up 1/4 the frame would be better. I can crop it for you if you like, but the resultant image will be tiny...

Also, a lower shooting angle would have produced a much more interesting perspective. Just imagine -- how many of us regularly view mushrooms from below? Not very many! The point is, if you try something unusual or different then people may look at the photo and say "wow, I have never seen something like that, great job".:yesnod:

Find a nice chunk of free time, go outside and spend at least 15min standing up, crouching down, bending across, etc. with your camera. The Sony A700 has excellent live view on the LCD screen which should prove invaluable for this type of work. Not to mention the built-in image stabilizer.

If you are using flash, cover it with a piece of semi-transparent tape, white fabric or some tissue paper. This will "soften up" the light, reduce glaring problems and distracting shadows behind the subject.

Employ a tripod whenever possible. (Remember to turn off Super Steady Shot when using a tripod).

[Pink Dragonfly]

Alex, thank you so much for taking the time to reply with such a wealth of advice

I did go out today, as there was some rare rays of sunshine Unfortunately, I was to lazy to bring the tripod - I regret that now...BTW why is it that I need to turn off the Super Steady Shot when using a tripod? Does it go for monopods too?

I'll get back to this later - gotta dash...

Mette

[Dylan8i]

by second i ment the cropped ( second of three photos in the thread).

i see what your saying about the bark, but i just don't find it all that interesting ( some people may) and this is why i would like to see more of the frame filled by the much more interesting mushrooms.


also looking at it again, if you wanted to keep some green in it, another angle would be use a horizontal crop, have the green on hte left side, the middle mushroom )vertically) and some of that nice orange fungi on the right side. it would be similar to the 3rd shot, but horizontal with the top and bottom mushroom groups cropped off, and maybe a tad off the right.

[A.M.D.A.]

why is it that I need to turn off the Super Steady Shot when using a tripod? Does it go for monopods too?

Well, image stabilization systems are designed to always be encountering some degree of movement (camera-shake). If the camera is on a tripod or on a table, etc., then the result can be blurred images, since the stabilizer is trying to counteract non-existing movement. This has happened to me several times with MEGA O.I.S., I was wondering why my pictures appeared soft if I had my camera attached to a sturdy tripod!

Image stabilizers work all right with monopods.

[Pink Dragonfly]

Thanks, Dylan and Alex You guys are a bottomless well of useful advice and information! I had great fun out there today, taking some 40 shots of the same pack of mushrooms (which had grown a fair bit in 5 days!) from all sorts of weird angles (this is actually the first time I've missed the tilting LCD screen of the a350 that I was going to buy until the a700 called out to me in the shop!). I didn't have as much depth of field as I would have liked, despite the sun, so I do need the tripod or I need to see if I can get the ring flash for my old Minolta to work. The built-in flash didn't do much and I think it would also be too close for my flashgun. I'll post some later when I've had time to look at them more closely. There should hopefully be some for your taste, Dylan - all mushroom, no bark

Mette