Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
I found this huge fallen tree that was covered in moss and had all of these small mushrooms sprouting from the log. It was not possible to pass this by.
Any is welcome
Canon EOS R5
1/6 Sec @ f 5.6
200mm with Nisi close-up filter
Todd, @Kris_Smith will be excited to know there is another photographer on here that finds it impossible to pass by mushrooms and moss. She can probably even give you the specific name for this one.
I like the composition, lighting and background. It looks like though that there is some motion blur in the mushroom when I enlarge the image. I see you used 1/6 for your shutter speed, so if there was any breeze, or if you moved the camera even slightly this would happen at that speed. I am guessing that light was a premium being in the woods. A flash would have probably helped in a situation like that. The 200mm with a Nisi close-up filter makes a nice combination for some macro/close-up photography. I like that I can carry the filter along when shooting other genre, and if I come upon something like this, I just screw the filter on and have the opportunity to do macro without carrying a macro lens and having to change it.
Todd, I certainly understand the attraction of moss and mushroom on a forest floor. Who can resist that beauty? (That’s a rhetorical question, folks.)
I agree with @Shirley_Freeman’s assessment of the overall image. The softness on the mushroom is noticeable especially when your eyes look at the grounding moss in the FG. That appears more in focus than the mushroom, but it is likely some light movement caused by wind or the low shutter speed. I gotta say, though, that it amazes me to see 1/6 sec with the level of detail you captured. Had I done that, my image would have been an ICM example. 
I would like to offer a suggestion if you’re open to that. Had I edited this image, I would have brought down the highlights in the BG. The lush and bright green, especially that section in the center, is a bit distracting. If that was done, you might also need to open the highlights on the mushroom itself.
Thanks for sharing such a cool and refreshing image. It seems like ages I’ve seen that level of moisture on the soil. The heat and dry weather around here are killing everything.
Hi Todd, interesting small scene and I like seeing the sprouts with the mushroom. Really interesting. The moss adds another point of interest. Agree with observations and advice above. Intriguing image.
Scenes like this are my bread and butter. Good eye and good composition. I like the non-crowded nature of the sporophytes and the mushroom. Could be a type of moss agaric or possibly rickenella fibula. These little ones can be very hard to tell apart. A square crop works here as well.
But I can’t find any really sharp areas of focus anywhere in the frame. The moss below is the sharpest, but unfortunately the mushroom itself isn’t. That could be the filter or the slow shutter speed. Even these will move in the breeze so it can be hard to freeze them. Forest floors are dark places, but I love them and so keep a couple things on hand when doing this kind of work - an LED panel on either a flexible arm or a small tripod and a flash. I’m partial to continuous light for microscapes like this because it brings out so much texture if you use it as a sidelight.
If you head to the Flora category you’ll see my own attempts to do this kind of thing with varying success. Keep at it and keep looking down!
