Toadstool from a fairytale

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Last year when I found out we have these fly agaric mushrooms in the Blue Mountains, I was dead set on trying to find them. I missed the season last autumn and due to some slackness on my behalf, I pretty much missed it again this year. However, I managed to find a couple of photographable specimens, as most have by this day have withered away. I will not miss next year!

Taken on May 9, 2015 at Mount Wilson, in the upper Blue Mountains of NSW.

Canon EOS 5DMkIII, 100mm f/2.8 USM macro, ISO400, f/4, 1/200th, manual mode, tripod, remote, natural light, full frame, four image stack in Helicon Focus.

All feedback appreciated.

[Diane Miller]

Lovely light and environment on a beautiful subject. It seems nitpicky but I wonder about some darkening in the UL corner?

[Jonathan Ashton]

Lovely colours and DOF, I can see a faint rim of paler background around the toadstool. Lovely detail in the stype.
I can se the attraction of stacking though on a subject like this it is my guess that f16 and not too close would have yielded a good result.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Dianne, you're right, I was in two minds about that part of the frame. Despite being the sun's rays, it kind of really highlights the ULC.

Jonathan, I agree about the aperture selection you suggested at f/16. If I could have been dead level on the ground I would have stopped down and fired away. As I was slightly forced to angle the POV down, that's the reason for stacking to not get more unwanted detail in the BG in using a small aperture. Keeping it at f/4 and carefully focusing on the different parts of the mushroom allowed me to refrain from having a too detailed and busy background. So usually, I'd prefer not to muck around with extra processing. :)

[Allen Sparks]

Hi Akos,
Lovely subject and I like the tones and detail you captured. I can see Jonathan's point about a slight halo over the mushroom. Still a nice image.

Allen

[BenBotha]

I like the image. the light is special. I agree with the comments about the halo.
Ben