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Dave Leroy
10-19-2009, 06:33 PM
I believe it is a Fly Agaric and I may be wrong. Taken this morning near the Fraser River, 50D, 70/200 f4IS, 1/20, f/16 ISO400. Although on a tripod I did not use MLU nor a cable release as I am not quite sure when that helps. Natural light and I toned the bg down quite a bit. Dave

Julie Kenward
10-19-2009, 09:17 PM
Although on a tripod I did not use MLU nor a cable release as I am not quite sure when that helps. Natural light and I toned the bg down quite a bit.


Dave, nice image here. First let's talk about your statement that I've quoted above.

When does a tripod help? ALWAYS. When do I personally use one? Okay, you got me. Hardly ever.
Seriously, though...when you get below 1/30th of a second using any and all lenses you need to think about either raising your ISO so you can get the shutter speed up higher or you need to go to a tripod to steady the camera from hand shake. Another good rule to remember is when the shutter speed is less than the length of the camera lens being used (i.e. if the lens is a 100mm then 1/100th is about as low as you want to go with handholding UNLESS you have learned techniques to steady yourself and feel sure of your abilities.)

As for mirror lock up, it can also make a huge difference in how camera shake affects a final image. Try it some time - do one image without it and one with and see if you can tell the difference in a slower shutter speed photograph.

Now, as for the image you have here...

I really like the placement of the mushroom in the frame. You've 2/3 FG and 1/3 BG and that really works here because nothing in the FG is terribly distracting - it all pretty much looks like it's exactly where it should be and you have good exposure so it all shows and is well defined. (One exception is the blades of OOF grass at the very bottom right corner - I'd consider cloning them out.)

The colors are nice (love that pop of red!) but the whites are spiked on the right side of your histogram, meaning they are blown and you have lost some of the detail in those areas. If you processed this in Camera Raw you could easily recover the blown highlights but you didn't mention if this is how you created the image or if it was shot in JPEG. I opened the image in Camera Raw and slid the recovery slider to the right until the spike on the histogram's right side went back to normal (meaning the red triangle changed back to black again.)

Always check your histogram when in the field after you first set an exposure to make sure you aren't spiking on the right side. Remember, too, that it is always easier to bring up the dark tones of an underexposed image than to calm down the highlights in an overexposed one.

I like that you darkened the BG - I added to that a bit more because the story here really is in the mushroom and the leaves in the FG. Next time, you might also think about putting the mushroom to one side of the image more - here it is pretty centered. You used the ROT's vertically but not horizontally. Putting the mushroom in the ROT's position both ways would make the composition even stronger.

Hope this helps. If you have any questions feel free to ask or send me a PM. Nice image overall - exposure is very close and the Depth of Focus was very well done. Now...just hone in on those details of what draws your eye away from the main focal point and clean up the little things - either out in the field or in pp.

Dave Leroy
10-20-2009, 09:18 AM
Thanks Jules. here is another shot at it. I went back to the RAW file, and reworked the file trying to get some detail in the whites. I also took out most of the distractions.
I do use RAW, check HIstogram c/w RGB channels shown and normally use tripod. As far as I can tell there were no blown high lights, although in the processed photo there appeared to be.
And I will check out mlu. Tks Again, Dave

Jackie Schuknecht
10-20-2009, 09:28 AM
Like your repost Dave. The mushroom stands out really well against the BG. Good details and the whites look really nice. I like the angle you have chosen too. To add to what Julie has said, I use self timer and MLU. I find I always forget the cable release.

Mike Moats
10-20-2009, 04:15 PM
Hey Dave, nice job on the repost, good comp and subject.

Dave Leroy
10-20-2009, 06:53 PM
Thanks Jackie and Mike. It is much appreciated. Dave

Julie Kenward
10-20-2009, 07:44 PM
Nice job, Dave. I know what you mean about the whites not being spiked in the histogram but then being spiked in pp. When working in raw we have to constantly check for those spikes - we can easily push them when we do curves or contrast adjustments in the RAW format. You did a great job on this mushroom - you should be very proud!

Declan Troy
10-21-2009, 11:40 AM
Looks like fly agaric aka Amanita muscaria to me too.

Steve Maxson
10-21-2009, 12:07 PM
Hi Dave. I like your repost - I think it is a subtle, but significant improvement. Well done.