Standing in the light of love - + reworks

[Kris_Smith (Kristen M Smith)]

With the dark area lightened and desaturated a bit -

And the original aspect ratio with the same treatment -

Or at least infatuation.

Spying this little scene while photographing another made me jump for joy. Not only is it a cute little fruiting body, but it has a bunch of sporophyte friends and they’re all on an ancient stump. Plus the stump is far enough away from the peat moss bed in the background. Perfection!

Because I didn’t collect this to examine or do a spore print with I’m not certain of an ID. Not that you all care, but this could be Hygrocybe cantharellus because it’s on a log, but it could also be Mycena leaiana which also fruits on logs and the caps sometimes become lined. But it could be Pluteus chrysophlebius, too. For this kind of thing I should collect and do a spore print.

Anyway…whatever it is, it’s long gone but for this portrait.

Specific Feedback Requested

I’m open to processing ideas.

Technical Details

Tripod & natural light, probably a CPL
Focus bracketing using 0/+ method and probably 4-step increments - 2 sessions of 11 with different initial starting points - all used

Lots of adjustments to luminosities, color, white balance in Lr. Added some texture, clarity & sharpening/nr.

Zerene for a 22-image stack, no slabbing, ran 2 DMap images to get the background right, retouched the second to include some PMax detail, but not a ton.

Photoshop to improve the resulting TIF using a variety of color and luminosity masks with the TK8 panel to contour the shroom, the moss and to even out the colors & light in the background. Ran a clarity action and restricted it to the mushroom, ran a Make it Glow action and reduced the opacity so it wouldn’t be cartoonish. Phew.

[linda_mellor]

Outstanding photo, Kris! Lighting, details, your set up & composition and your post processing are all spot on. . . .only . . . in the if it were mine category. . . .I would be so tempted to remove the one sporophyte in the front of the mushroom. But that’s just me. Truly nicely seen and captured.

[Phil_G (Phil Greenwood)]

LOVELY silky smooth bokeh, my sweet spot. Very nice. The only thing I can add is that my eye tends to flick between the bright yellow and the dark RHS of the stump. Maybe if the latter was a bit lighter. Possibly, maybe.

[Kris_Smith (Kristen M Smith)]

Thanks @linda_mellor & @Phil_G - I’m glad you aren’t too sick of these yet. There will be more! Lol.

The sporophyte is just too cute, Linda! I actually made sure I had a shot with that in precise focus. But yeah, I can see losing it. too.

But that lower dark part was more maddening and I didn’t mention it not wanting to lead the witness so to speak. So I put another shot with it cropped and lightened. And also the original aspect ratio. Thoughts? Which works better?

[Phil_G (Phil Greenwood)]

Looks great Kristen, big improvment to me. I like the little bits of web in the centre, makes the shot look much more natural compared with many mushroom and toadstool photos that seem too manicured compared with what you see in the wild.

[Diane_Miller]

This has to be a studio shot!! What a “perch”!! The photobombing sporophyte would have been my first victim, but now that I see the natural result, I like it!!

[Mike_Friel]

For me, shot 2 has the best balance of BG, mushroom and stump. Superb colours, Kris!

[Kris_Smith (Kristen M Smith)]

Thanks @Phil_G, @Diane_Miller & @Mike_Friel - nope, just a wild mushroom doing its thing! I crave these kinds of shots and will usually do a lot of stupid tripod tricks to get them. This was no exception and I wish I’d taken a cell phone picture of the set up. Legs akimbo!

Sometimes I do a fair amount of clean up on the spot, but spider webs stay and if they blow around like this one did, I choose one frame to use for retouching in the stack and leave it. If it’s really distracting I’ll clone it out, but for this I left it. Like the sporophytes, they add the necessary details that just make these tiny scenes special.