Just dropped in

Image Critiques Macro/Close-up Critiques
1

Just dropped in
Just dropped in3000×2143 1.89 MB

Photographing small scenes on the forest floor is something I’ve been doing for ages. Microscapes is what I call them and I try to apply traditional landscape composition guidelines when making them. This little LBM in some peat moss looked so cute I had to try. The leaves in front and behind I think help separate and give some layering to break up the moss with different color and texture. Forest floor scenes are inherently chaotic, but this didn’t need that much clean up at the time or in post. Just a little of both. The specks on the cap are tiny bugs of some kind that kept moving with each frame.

Specific Feedback Requested

General feedback on the concept and if it works here. Any changes that could be made in post that I can do will be considered as well. Clone the bugs out or leave them?

Technical Details

Tripod and CPL
Camera focus bracketing for an 8 or 10 image stack, nothing too crazy.

image

Lr for curves management to smooth tonalities. A little wb correction and a crop. Some texture and clarity. Didn’t touch saturation or vibrance.

Zerene for DMap stack and retouching using PMax details where needed.

Ps for some distraction mitigation.

2

Hi Kristen thanks for posting. I do a lot of fungi photography myself and look forward each year to autumn. The specimen is intact which is good, as it can be a arduous task at times finding specimens that the slugs have got too. I think for me the introduction of the leaf takes my eye away from the fungi itself. It’s always a good idea with fungi to shoot several options then you can choose, this is what I often do. There are leaves further back in the background and they work fine. I don’t think in this case it does any harm to the image by the amount of sphagnum in the foreground. As for the bugs you could remove them, but its part of the natural ecosystem on the forest floor.