Just another LBM (+ rework)

Image Critiques Flora Critiques
1

Just another LBM
Just another LBM3000×2250 1.98 MB

With suggestions applied -

2022-08-28-17.29.17 ZS retouched-Edit
2022-08-28-17.29.17 ZS retouched-Edit3000×2250 1.91 MB

How can I resist? Possibly Inocybe geophylla, but I’m not positive. It’s about 1 inch high. Growing in this moss and lit so softly I couldn’t pass it by. I supplemented the light with an flash off camera to the right so the stipe would be more visible, but now I have worked on it, I should have used a diffuser above to keep the cap from being so reflective. Despite the CPL, it’s still a little hot there.

My first camera placement was straight on the ground, but this is up on the tripod (which was flat), and slightly higher and I like it better. Shows the cap more and the mossy backdrop.

While retouching I discovered a nearly-microscopic spider hiding on one of the moss leaves.

Specific Feedback Requested

You’re probably hoping I’ll stop with the mushrooms already.

Good luck with that. LOL.

Seriously, other than the maybe too bright highlights on the cap, anything else egregiously wrong??

Technical Details

Tripod & polarizer, flash
Chose different focus points once the flash recycled for another shot

image

Lr for initial processing including wb correction, taming of the greens, smoothing of the variances in luminosity (especially in the cap), texture, exposure and a bit of sharpening.

Zerene for a 5-image stack, DMap base with some PMax detail in the retouching.

Photoshop for some distraction removal and additional work with correcting the flattened TIF from Zerene.

2

You could try desaturating the greens slightly, this will give you more tonality within the scene. I’d probably use a subtle gradient to darken the top edge a bit as well since it’s the brightest and sort of pulls me up past the mushroom.

3

Kris, keep the 'shrooms coming! This is really a nice portrait of a mushroom. It feels almost formal in it’s composition. The moss is perfect too. I love the stack and that you choose to only stack the subject not the whole scene. Awesome.

4

It does feel like a very stately mushroom with it’s posture, Kris. My first thought was how the lighting matched the mushroom. So maybe, the top is a tad bright, but it works for me. But . . .now you’ve got me searching for the “microscopic spider!” Didn’t find it either.

5

Thanks @Eric_Bennett, @David_Bostock & @linda_mellor - I hadn’t thought of it as being stately or formal, but I see that now. Funny for such a little thing.

I’ve put a 2nd shot up there with a bit of a linear gradient for the top (excluding the mushroom by limiting it to the green color only) and reduced the saturation of the greens very slightly. I think it works. Thanks for the help.

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