The photographer is looking for thoughtful feedback on the image as a whole, especially around the areas noted below.
Feedback Focus: Artistic / Expressive
About This Image
It’s been a wet summer with the local woods full of many different mushrooms. I found a fallen tree covered with small mushrooms that look to be Mycena and have been to visit several times. This is how it looked yesterday as the mushrooms mature and turning quite orange. A 26 shot stack.
Feedback Requested
I like the frame filling view with it’s color and shapes. I also like that there are surprises scattered throughout.
That’s beautiful, Mark. Congratulations on such a great image. My only very, very minor idea would be a 1x1 crop. There’s an almost perfect distribution of the mushrooms across the frame but I find my eye being drawn toward the gaps in the bottom left and top centre. Could a 1x1 (ish) crop to cut those gaps out to give a more even distribution of the mushrooms. Anyway, it’s a lovely image as is and I do find myself moving around the frame and exploring the nooks and crannies. Congratulations.
My first thought was wow, I love this. It’s a terrific image, Mark. My second thought was I’m glad I don’t have to decide where to crop it.
The only thing that bothers me a little is that the highlights in the upper half of the shot are significantly brighter than those in the lower half. I’d consider bringing the highlights up top down a little.
Mark: Frame filling fantastic. I’m not sure there’s any right crop so this and @Doug_Wilson works for me. You and Kris are really doing some great mushroom work. Many kudos. >=))>
This is fanstastic, Mark. It’s like a little microcosm (well, I guess it actually is a little microcosm). It reminds of a Jetson’s city, big and little structures, all aligned and yet distinct. No nits.
ML
Outstanding! Agree with the comment you and Kris are cornering the mushroom market!
Fantastic job in capturing/creating this. Technically, I can only suggest and agree with Don about toning down the brighter areas along the top - although I understand from the light, and light fall off, that the scene was naturally brighter towards the top. Still, the eye is pulled there a bit. I’d say not a terrible problem to have…
Also agree with the notion about a crop, and where the heck to crop? I like where Doug was going with this, although If I was cropping I wouldn’t want to cut in to the spider web - I think one of the nice “surprises” you might have referred to? Anyway, this is fantastic as presented.
I can see the suggestion to crop this a little, Mark, but in this case I wouldn’t as I think part of the appeal of this image is the huge array of fruiting bodies in the image-and why reduce that? Similarly with the light being brighter on the top than the bottom. While that’s true, in this case that’s part of the story. The upper mushrooms are shading those lower down and much change in that gradient would make it look a little odd to my eye. So I guess I’m in the camp that says i really like this as posted and wouldn’t change a thing.
This is such a cool image. What a great find. The mushrooms look like little pieces of ceramic sculpture. Your details are really great. This is an image one could keep coming back to and finding new details. I think you could go crazy trying to come up with alternative ways to crop this and it wouldn’t be worth the effort. This image is really wonderful.
What a fantastic and interesting macro shot! It allows the mind to create all kinds of gnome, fairy or critter stories:o) As for the crop, I like it as it is with the wide variety of sizes of the mushrooms and the little ones that peek through. The way the light hits the mushrooms in the UL corner then stairsteps down to mid frame on the right is very effective…like an umbrella for the lower group. Nice diagonal movement.
A very cool photo. I love how the stem of each mushroom fades into black in the BG. The only place in the photo where this is not seen in in the URC. In fact that corner seems to break the pattern of the overall photo. Not sure if that adds or takes away from the photo. In any case a very appealing photo.
Great shot, Mark. It needed a stack, and this brings all the little ballerinas into great focus. They are all in the spotlight, without one prima hogging it. Super black BG - A++.
Hi Mark, very well seen and technically a great stack.
I like your crop, with the variation my eyes can wander and discover amidst the regularity at first glance.
It you want to emphasise the regularity the suggested crops give this message more strongly , removing the larger gaps - but nature isn’t really like that.
I really like the way you have filled the frame and the way it shows the competition between individual mushrooms results in the variation in size - with a nice uniformity of colour.
The large view brought out the surprises and found this one fascinating. The colors, textures, and soft lighting makes this a wonderful comp. You could try the crop, but I like the entire view as presented. This is what close-up photograohy entails–Awesome…Jim
Jim_Zablotny
(Jim Zablotny)
selected this as an Editor's Pick
14
This photo features repeated patterns of shapes, colors, and lights against a fairly dark, but not featureless background. Please examine the large versions to view some of the other natural features like dew covered spiderwebs and moss which add complexity to the composition. Also, excellent stacking and post-processing techniques tied everything together for this week’s Macro-Closeuop EP.
