First rays, first days

Image Critiques Flora Critiques
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First rays, first days
First rays, first days3000×2000 2.26 MB

And you thought I was done.

Frankly, so did I, but when I went out again in late September, there were still mushrooms around and some newly fruiting like this young Amanita. I stupidly forgot my macro lens, but the Lumix 12-35mm f/2.8 focuses quite close so I could get right in there. It’s fruiting on a log and I couldn’t resist all that moss. And something couldn’t resist a nibble. Funny how something probably deadly to humans can be food for other creatures.

This was a bit of a challenge and an eye-opener in some ways. How to get dappled sunlight and focus bracketing that doesn’t look weird? Lots of Contrast Threshold masking in Zerene - that’s how. By wiping most of the image in black by using the CT slider, I got the process engine to ignore the contrast changes and just basically give me one or possibly a blend of like images that don’t show changes in light through the entire series of shots. So I could get direct, but filtered sunlight to look natural.

Specific Feedback Requested

At least I think it does. Can you see anything weird about the bokeh or sunlit areas? Did I miss something?

Technical Details

Tripod & CPL
Focus bracketing using 0/+ method and probably 4 or 5 step - used 8 images for stack

image

Lr for RAW work including crop, general curves adjustment for contrast and to lift shadows. Texture, clarity and some reduction of the greens.

Zerene for stacking which produced a nice DMap after a few tries. Did some retouching to further smooth the background.

Photoshop for some distraction removal.

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Another fantastic capture, Kris. I am envious of your phenomenal depth of knowledge when it comes to post processing. I never would have guessed what your post processing was for this photo, it looks totally natural. . .at least for me! Nicely done.

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Thanks @linda_mellor - I certainly don’t think of myself as any kind of an expert, just a curious dabbler with lots of time on her hands.

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Really nice Kristen (Kris?). Love the detail you have in the moss, and the bit of moss up on the edge of the mushroom adds a nice bit of interest (as well as the bite marks).
Now that you mention it, I do find a sort of weirdness in the backround…a slightly uncomfortable OOF rendering. This is typical with M4/3 zoom lenses unfortunately, and why I try to use fixed focals as much as I can, mostly the 60mm macro and 42.5mm. The latter gives a lovely creamy bokeh.
As with Linda, I am astounded with your post processing prowess with Zerene. I have used Zerene for quite a while for studio stacking at high mags but certainly don’t have you ability with it. In the end I switched to using Helicon Focus because it was easier to get a good result. Just call it laziness. Cheers.