Hi, I really like the composition but the colours are a bit too desaturated for me. But I like it and the shallow DOF with a kinda bokeh effect is nice.
thanks, had to go for a shallow depth of field as there is a wire fence in the background that I was trying to disguise. I think the low saturation makes it moody?
I like the composition, but not sure on the focus point as I think it should be the mushroom if thats what it is
the mushroom is supposed to be the focal point, I couldnt use the viewfinder as it was too close to the ground, so had to rely on the live view on the display. the actual mushroom was only about 3cm tall, on top of a small piece of rotten wood.
Nice and I like the muted colours, but the clash between two styles of border is giving me some grief.
thanks, and yes I agree with the borders, the outer black one is not my doing, this is the first time I have posted on amateur photographer so still learning the ropes.
its not easy when taking photos that low to the ground, I've tried a few times. But it seem the fern dead center is sharp ...maybe just my monitor
I think the stalk of the mushroom and the ferns around its base are the most in focus, its the best shot I got out of about 20
If you intended this as a natural history shot then it's not working too well for several reasons. The fungus (toadstool) isn't sharp enough by a long way. The background is very distracting - especially that tree trunk. The lighting could be more interesting. The difficulty in getting the shot is immaterial. Most of us (NH photographers that is) carry a plastic waterproof sheet so that we can lie on the ground. We buy tripods that lower to ground level, more or less. We show ridiculous amounts of patience to either wait for perfect conditions or to find another, more promising, subject. In your case I would have gone closer - made the fungus bigger and cut out a lot of background - used a tripod. Used the longest lens that got me close enough to try to keep the fungus sharp and the fence unsharp tried loads of aperture settings and if none of that worked I'd walk away and find another specimen. MickLL
I like the approach to the shot, but I think the bokeh in this is awful (bokeh isn't the amount of things out of focus, but the quality of the out of focus area), and I'm not normally fussed by bokeh. Differential focus is a great technique, but the fungus needs to be sharper, and the background less jarring.
MickLL, I am not a NH photographer, just a keen amateur who was out walking his dog and saw something interesting.
MickLL, the 'tree' in the background is actually a small twig, so at least that got you thinking. All of your comments are much appreciated. Here is another pic of the same scene, notice the fence in the background that I tried to hide using a shallow depth of field. [/URL][/IMG]
Hi, to explain the background I have added another pic which shows the fence I was trying to disguise.
Yes, it's probably the residual image of the fence that ruins the bokeh. As I said, nice approach, I just think it's not quite come off.
I understand what you mean about the quality of the unfocused background. The term Bokeh is new to me, so I have learnt something from you, thanks. I had this pic printed at about 20 inch, and the printed image looks a lot better than on my monitor, the fence is virtually unnoticable (unless you know to look for it) and the entire background is much more blended together, so less distracting.
The others seem to have covered this image, but live view isn't a disadvantage for this at all. You should have been able to focus perfectly using it if you zoomed into the toadstool at 100%, then manually focus until it appears sharp. The good thing is mushrooms don't move in the wind like flowers can so it's easy to get the focus bang on. You should find plenty of fungi at this time of year so you need to find examples with clean backgrounds, it's also worth doing some minor gardening of the area if needed to remove distractions
