mushroom on the pathway

[Valerio Tarone]

ny attention was drawn by these small mushrooms, shot in backlit?..no it wasn't good, in the opposite direction I saw that the long branch ,covered by moss was a leading line. On the left a pathway leads into the wood, but the indinstint mood lead to some mistery. (selfcritique)




Data zoom 17-35mm at 29mm 12mm extension tube f29 1/4 polarizer filter ISO400 WB auto ev.meter spot tripod
In Nikon Capture the usual, minimum adjustments(saturation, levelsLCE, sharpness, ....)
C&c well accepted

[Dave Leroy]

Lovely colors and a great idea. The golds and greens really compliment each other very well. I wish there was a bit of separation between the two mushrooms. The one bigger drawback for me is not enough in focus to grab my eye.
I am surprised that you have had success with the 17/35 zoom and extension tube. I had looked at my 17/40 and extension tube a bit with no luck in acquiring focus at all. I must give it another look.

[Valerio Tarone]

thanks, Dave
you certainly understand the aperture was the narrowest, to have dof. The idea of using this combianation is what I saw in the forum, I don't remember the author(Ken Child?) this work, for me, at 30-35 mm focal, and I call with a new word...'macroangular'! this allows to put the subject in it environment. As composition having a twin subject is a good idea, but in this my idea was to follow the leading line. Personally I think that, only in the right case, some oof objects are 'creative', for example mushrooms becomes 'ghosts'. Am I excessive?
I don't , I would appreciate others critiques.

[Steve Maxson]

Hi Valerio. I like the perspective of looking down the moss-covered branch with the mushrooms in the foreground, but overall, this one is not working for me. The primary reason is that nothing is actually in focus. Has this combination of zoom-extension tube-polarizer-f/29 produced sharp images for you in other situations? I'm wondering if at f/29 you are getting so much diffraction that it is not possible to obtain sharpness.
For my tastes, at least the front mushroom needs to be sharp for this image to work. If it had been sharp, I would have suggested that a little more room on the bottom to include all of the mushroom's stem and a bit more room on the right would have made the image stronger. I would also suggest cropping about 2/3 of the yellow area on the left side of the frame to focus more of our attention on the mushrooms and green stem. :S3:

[Ken Childs]

Hey Valerio, I feel pretty much the way Steve does about this one....with nothing in focus it really doesn't work for me. For this type of shot, you might be better off without the tube attached.

I think the concept is a good one so if you can shoot this one again, I would love to see the results. :S3:

[Valerio Tarone]

Thanks Steve and Ken. Ken: It could be another shot, because I like go in the same places, perhaps within some months. steve: I appreciate your critiques, I thought to put the mushroom in the 'golden rule' on the right. About focus in closeup-macro I should always use the sight as I'm myopic,ipermetropic and astigmatic.! But it cause to stay in discomfort positions. Ken: I'm happy you like the concept.

[Chris Starbuck]

Hi Valerio. I know this thread's a bit old now, but I just noticed it and wanted to add a couple notes.

I really like the concept, and I'm pretty much in agreement with Dave Leroy's initial comments. In most images I need something to be in focus; there are exceptions (particularly impressionistic blurs), but for me this subject isn't one of those.

I'd like to encourage you to keep working on this technique, with the wide angle lens + extension tube. I first ran across it in an article by George Lepp, and have made a couple images I like with a 10-20mm zoom at 20mm with a 12mm tube.
Here's an example: http://crstarbuck.zenfolio.com/p792793008/e3b9c124c

When it works, it produces a kind of image you can't get any other way. Forgive me if I'm saying things you already know; perhaps some of the other readers don't, and it may be helpful to them. The use of a short extension tube doesn't work with all wide angle lenses - it depends on the lens design. With any lens, the addition of an extension tube moves the whole range of focus closer (and you can no longer focus at infinity). With some short focal length lenses, if you add any extension at all, the maximum focus distance (which was infinity without the tube) is actually inside the lens, and it's impossible to focus on anything. I don't know about the specific lens you're using. With my Sigma 10-20 set at 20mm, with the 12mm tube, the entire range of focus is between 1/2 inch and 1 inch from the glass. At 17mm it won't focus at all (max focus point is inside the lens). I would suggest you experiment with some household objects on your kitchen table to work out the range of focus for your lens + tube. Another possibility (I think) is that Nikon used to make an 8mm extension tube (I use Canon, so I'm not sure). If you can find one of those, and it's compatible with your camera & lens, that would give you a bit more working distance than the 12mm tube.