The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
From last month; a 20-ish shot stack of a lovely tuft of lichen. With such dry conditions there aren’t many mushrooms fruiting, so I had some fun with these guys instead. It’s hard to get a clear view of a group of this kind of thing so when I found this one I was pretty happy. It’s more isolated than a lot of other bunches.
Specific Feedback
Colors look ok? How’s the crop? Any weird stacking issue? DOF too much or too little?
Technical Details
Tripod flat on the forest floor
Focus bracketing in two sessions using the 0/+ method which moves front to back
Lr for the initial work on each image - color & wb adjustments as well as the usual S-curve for contrast. Some texture, sharpening & nr.
Zerene for the stacking which was amazingly clean and needed just a little retouching - DMap image base & PMax source for some details.
Further adjustments in Ps to massage tonalities, color and details. Maybe distraction removal, too, but I can’t remember.
thanks @Shirley_Freeman - glad you like it. I have tons of bug pictures, but this one is a bit different than what I’ve been doing lately. Plus it’s one of the only shots of this type of lichen that works. Little worlds!
Little worlds are good, Kris, with or without bugs! Wondering about how tiny this area of lichen was, do you think? I really like how the BG is oof, showing a small part of the world that this lichen is in. I don’t have any of this around here, so bugs is it, and lately way to hot for them and me. Today is cooler, but about to start raining.
It was about an inch or inch and a quarter wide, maybe 3/4 of an inch deep. The little needles around it are from hemlock and maybe 1 cm long. I’m glad you like the OOF background - I deliberately limited the bracketed images to only part of the little group since I thought it would stand out better that way. Did some clean up in the field, but not too much so it wouldn’t look sterile.
Very interesting! I’ve never seen lichen with these upright growths – fruiting bodies?? Maybe I haven’t been paying attention, or is there a lot of regional variation in kinds? I love the details and way it is nestled in the moss and the DOF is very attractive to show the details. My eye gets pulled, though, by the top area above the tuft of moss. I wonder how it would look blurred even more or cropped down to the top of the moss. It’s the lighter tan areas that are the issue – they could be pushed toward green, as another alternative. Gorgeous capture in any case!
A beautiful little moss and lichen garden, Kris. I love this kind of thing and they are very difficult to photograph successfully. You pulled this off very nicely.
@Diane_Miller In regard to local variations. I attended a walk around seminar by a local moss/lichen expert a number of years ago and she said the best book for these kinds of things was still one published for Britain! The spores are so small that they get into the upper atmosphere and get carried all over the world. Apparently there’s a whole world of microscopic spores, seeds and critters up there.
Thanks @Diane_Miller & @Dennis_Plank - glad you liked my microscape. They are hard to pull off, but I usually try. I’ll take a look at some options for reducing the presence of the light area behind the lichen.
Spores!! Great info there, Dennis. I love the fact that they move so easily in the atmosphere. I have yet to get the really big book about lichen in the US. It’s been a famously expensive tome for years, but I should have snagged it when it went under $100 last year. Haven’t seen it that low since. I think it’s a North American centric book, but I could be wrong. Weighs a metric ton though.
Hi Kris: Check out Alibris and/or Abebooks. You might be able to get it used surprisingly cheap. Sometimes these things end up at Goodwill or other thrift stores and they dump them for a few bucks. I haven’t tried it, but I think you can set a watch. I’ve seen prices for the same book vary from $5.95 to $100 or more for a book in the same condition. I suspect the used book dealers try to snatch those up themselves, but I’ve gotten some really good deals.
Really nice little world there and an excellently executed stack.
Some part of me feels that a greater separation from the background might have improved the image even more. You have a low f-number and a controlled number of shots in the stack so you did what you could there, but I wonder if a different position of shooting angle might have yielded an even better shot.
The area to the top right looks like it might a be bit further away so moving the camera to the left or shooting a bit more from below maybe. That being said I know how tricky it is to position the camera low on the “ground”. You don’t always have the options you like in terms of shooting position.
Thanks @Dennis_Plank & @Ingemar_Holmkvist - I keep an eye out for it from time to time, but should expand the places I look so thanks for that.
Yeah having the camera on the ground presents its own challenges, but since my camera is there a lot, I try to really scout and try different positions before settling. This view was about the only one possible due to stumps, rocks and that this is in a small depression and so the land itself rose on either side. I think the background could be made less prominent though so will probably have a go at that when I get the external drive hooked up again.
