'Shroomscape

[Anita Rakestraw]

I was fascinated with the textures of this mushroom and took bunches of pictures of it. Then I could never decide on the best presentation and never processed it. Still not sure....and for some reason I also always struggle with finding perfect focus/sharpness, to the point where I can't tell anymore if it's sharp or not! I'm thinking this isn't quite there....?

Anyway....taken with Canon Rebel XTi, June 2006, late afternoon
f/32
1/30
100mm macro lens at 100mm
ISO 100
tripod
Burned out a few grass blades in bg
About a 53% crop
Otherwise, the usual levels, curves, sharpening

[Robert O'Toole]

Sharpness looks okay, some textures just do not show contrast and sharpness well. My biggest concern isnt sharpness but the dark corner. This takes away from the sharpness that is there.

Robert

[Jeroen Stel]

Hi Anita,

I agree with Robert that leaving out the dark corner would improve this photograph.
Also i see you are shooting at F32 wich in my opinion is too high of an F-number as allthough you would think to get great sharpness at these high F-numbers you are starting to loose some sharpness towards the corners.
I would suggest to try to make another shot like this again with just the texture of the mushroom and at F-number F16 to F18 and i think you will be surprised with the results!

Keep up the great work!

Greetings,

Jeroen Stel

[Tony Kirkby]

I think we are missing the point which I think is Moonscape/Shroomscape which makes this shot incuding (and especially )the dark corner and long shadows quite impressive with a very strong lunar/moonscape feel.

[Anita Rakestraw]

Robert, Jeroen, and Tony, thank you so much for your comments/suggestions. Jeroen, I don't know why I was using f/32, probably didn't know any better at the time....I am curious to know, however, under what circumstances might one be advised to use that f-stop -- any? The mushroom is long gone so will have to wait for another to try this again.

Tony, altho I was definitely wondering about the sharpness issue on this, I very much appreciate your seeing "the point" - you saw exactly what I saw in this, shadows and all, and I'm glad to hear you think it works. Thanks!

[Mike Moats]

Hey Anita, I agree with Tony, the idea is how this resembles a moon shot, and the shadows fit well with this idea. I know its not recommend to shoot in the F32 range because of quality issues, but I do it all the time with excellent results. Maybe in the film days you got what came out of the camera, but with PS you can add more sharpening to correct any flaws.

[Anita Rakestraw]

Thanks, Mike, I appreciate your looking and taking time to comment. Glad to hear f/32 isn't a total no-no! Love your macro-abstract work!