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 anevsky
Dilettante
Registered: 07/30/08
Posts: 140
Last seen: 10 days, 12 hours
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 Re: Mushroom Photography Tips  [Re: lqdtrance]
#10258219 - 04/29/09 08:06 PM (6 months, 19 days ago) |
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Nice work Alan..
I'm sure most of you already know this but you can get a coupler for your camera for ~$250. Richard, the guy who makes these is also a Linux guru and TeX dude - so that should put a smile on Alan's face.
http://tinyurl.com/cgj57c
(please obfuscate links to the outside world - we don't need bad attention)
If you are wondering about cameras, I just bought a Canon G10. It will work with Richard's coupler, but more important it is also a phenomenal camera that can shoot Raw.
Best,
a
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Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist
Registered: 03/10/07
Posts: 13,276
Last seen: 6 hours, 57 minutes
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Re: Mushroom Photography Tips [Re: anevsky]
#10259476 - 04/29/09 10:59 PM (6 months, 19 days ago) |
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Quote:
I'm sure most of you already know this but you can get a coupler for your camera for ~$250.
There are various couplers available but all they do is hold your camera up to the lens, I can usually do that pretty well without any additional hardware. It would be nice to have something a bit more stable for long exposures since there isn't much light available at 1000x, but I would be more inclined to make something from an old washing machine instead of spend money on a little holder.
I wonder if could hook up a slave flash to blast the sample with light, that would be hilarious.
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cuddlebear
Free hugs
Registered: 03/31/09
Posts: 179
Last seen: 12 hours, 4 minutes
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Thanks for posting these tips!
http://mushroomhobby.com/TOP_10_MISTAKES/index.htm is the direct URL for the helpful top 10 mistakes article. The formatting of the post here was a little messed up and difficult for me to read.
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yakuspa
Stranger
Registered: 05/14/09
Posts: 31
Last seen: 3 months, 4 days
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Hi AR, I didnt look at your tips prior to taking these but next trip I will. In the mean time some shots that maybe of interest. For me they are enjoyable.
Cheers
   
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cyanide9
Shroomer
Registered: 06/23/09
Posts: 10
Loc: Southeastern Bluegrass
Last seen: 4 months, 22 days
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Re: Mushroom Photography Tips [Re: snoot]
#10573376 - 06/25/09 08:30 PM (4 months, 24 days ago) |
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Hey guys, thought I'd share a little tip I use with the macro mode of cameras. Sometimes it's better to back away from the object your shooting and zoom in while using your auto focus (holding the button halfway until your crosshairs turn red). I get some pretty detailed shots this way, sometimes better than close range macro shots, try it.
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ShockValue
♥ ∫∅∇∈ ♥
Registered: 11/18/08
Posts: 1,824
Loc: Olympic Peninsula, WA
Last seen: 8 hours, 22 minutes
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Re: Mushroom Photography Tips [Re: cyanide9]
#10641280 - 07/08/09 11:11 AM (4 months, 11 days ago) |
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One problem I seem to be running into lately is lighting. Typically I don't use a flash and rely on long exposure times since I'm using a tripod. I'm finding that in a lot of cases in order to get the mushroom to be exposed properly (espeically if the mushroom is ligher in color) the surrounding landscape turns out way to dark or underexposed.
I've read some tips on bringing reflectors and such to use natural lighting, but when I go out on walks I typically have nothing but my daugher on my shoulders, a brown paper bag, a swiss army knife in my pocket and my camera on a small tripod.
Any suggestions on this issue?
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Click and give me some feedback on my shroom wiki!
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Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist
Registered: 03/10/07
Posts: 13,276
Last seen: 6 hours, 57 minutes
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Re: Mushroom Photography Tips [Re: ShockValue]
#10641446 - 07/08/09 11:48 AM (4 months, 11 days ago) |
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The best and most time consuming solution is to shoot HDR photos - Take one underexposed, one just right and one overexposed, and digitally combine them.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/hdr/pool/
A more time effective way is to move the mushroom and camera until the differences are not so objectionable.
Also try the flash.
I often have the opposite problem - With a light mushroom on a dark background, the camera wants to way overexpose the mushroom. To fix this I either use the exposure compensation button [EV +/-], or press the shutter down half way, then block most of the light getting to the mushroom with my hand and press it the rest of the way.
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ShockValue
♥ ∫∅∇∈ ♥
Registered: 11/18/08
Posts: 1,824
Loc: Olympic Peninsula, WA
Last seen: 8 hours, 22 minutes
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I tried messing around with HDR once or twice but came up with some very unnatural looking shots. I don't mind if they look a little proccessed or adjusted, but mine were just strange. Probably with more practice I could get it looking good. I have a good HDR book on hold from the library, but the jerk ahead of me has had it for like 3 weeks past due >:)
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Click and give me some feedback on my shroom wiki!
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Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist
Registered: 03/10/07
Posts: 13,276
Last seen: 6 hours, 57 minutes
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Re: Mushroom Photography Tips [Re: ShockValue]
#10642274 - 07/08/09 02:49 PM (4 months, 11 days ago) |
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Quote:
Typically I don't use a flash and rely on long exposure times since I'm using a tripod. I'm finding that in a lot of cases in order to get the mushroom to be exposed properly (espeically if the mushroom is ligher in color) the surrounding landscape turns out way to dark or underexposed.
Try to block as much light coming to the mushroom as possible, so the background is lighter by comparison. Especially white mushrooms need to be in the shadows when you photograph them.
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koraks
Registered: 06/02/03
Posts: 5,185
Loc: Northern hemisphere
Last seen: 4 hours, 16 minutes
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Alan's tip of selectively blocking light seems very usable. Other than that, I would still suggest bringing a reflector in the field. Mind you, this needn't be a large or cumbersome contraption. A sheet of paper or a white cloth (garment?) will work quite nicely. There's also a vast selection of dedicated reflector sets that can generally be folded to about pocket size (see e.g. here).
Also, as Alan pointed out, use fill flash where appropriate. If your camera features flash exposure compensation, turn it down to -1 or so for natural looking results. HDR is a potential solution too, but I find it too time-consuming and cumbersome myself, so I always try to light the scene as I shoot the picture, limiting the time I need to spend on post processing. In some cases, however, it's possible (or necessary) to reduce the contrast of a scene in post processing. If you intend to do so, make sure your camera has a RAW recording function. Open the RAW files in a suitable utility (e.g. Adobe Camera Raw) and fool around with the sliders to get a balanced image. JPEGs allow some fiddling as well, but generally offer a more limited dynamic range, so you'll be sooner confronted with blown-out highlights.
Capturing and translating the contrast of a real scene to a good image is the number 1 challenge for photographers and it has been since the very beginning. If you're really interested in this, definitely read up on the zone system.
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Mushroom photography tutorial
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This is the way the world ends.
Not with a bang, but a whimper.
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ShockValue
♥ ∫∅∇∈ ♥
Registered: 11/18/08
Posts: 1,824
Loc: Olympic Peninsula, WA
Last seen: 8 hours, 22 minutes
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Re: Mushroom Photography Tips [Re: koraks]
#10646282 - 07/09/09 08:42 AM (4 months, 10 days ago) |
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Thanks for the tips guys. Next time I'm out in the field and have a few minutes to expiriment I'll give it a shot.
HDR is an interesting subject to me, and my camera is capable of both RAW and auto-braketing shots, so I'm going to give this another shot to see if I can't get a reasonably natural looking photo. Fortunatly I'm a network and systems administrator, so spending a bit of time in front of the computer doesn't deter me 
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Click and give me some feedback on my shroom wiki!
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koraks
Registered: 06/02/03
Posts: 5,185
Loc: Northern hemisphere
Last seen: 4 hours, 16 minutes
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Re: Mushroom Photography Tips [Re: ShockValue]
#10774861 - 07/31/09 01:43 PM (3 months, 19 days ago) |
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Ok, in another thread I just wrote something about zoom and aperture on digital compact camera's. I'll include this information here as well:
Macro mode
The macro mode of a compact camera essentially allows the lens to focus at a very close distance, much closer than the normal focusing range. This is done by increasing the distance between the lens and the sensor. So essentially, the macro mode allows the lens to be moved further out of the camera than normal. This method, similar to using extension tubes on a SLR camera, has an important implication:
- For the same magnification, less extension is needed with a short focal length ('zoomed out') than with a long focal length ('zoomed in'). However, the amount of extension available on a compact camera is fixed; i.e., it is the same when zoomed in or zoomed out. The implication is that you can get a larger magnification (more macro) when completely zoomed out.
Note that even working in macro when zoomed out, you retain the wide-angle perspective of a short focal length. I find this particularly pleasing for macro shots. Another advantage of shorter focal lengths is that motion blur is less likely to occur, so you can use longer shutter times handheld.
Zoom and focal length
Zoom is changing the focal length of the lens. A higher number (e.g. 135mm) means you draw the object closer, so to speak (zoom in), while a lower number (zoom out) gives a wider perspective.
Aperture is the opening inside the lens assembly through which the light passes towards the sensor. Now pay attention to this, 'cause it's confusing: a smaller number (e.g. f/2.8) represents a larger lens opening, while a larger number is a smaller opening. A larger opening obviously implies that more light reaches the sensor, hence, you can lower the shutter speed or lower the ISO setting as a result. However, a larger opening (low f/number) also means decreased depth of field, so it makes for blurry backgrounds and only the focal object sharply in focus. Increasing the f/number ('stopping down', as it's also called) increases the depth of field, which means that larger portions of the picture will appear in focus.
For mushroom macro work using a digital compact camera, this whole theory also has one especially relevant implication:
- You generally want to use a large aperture (=small f/number), as mushrooms tend to grow in dark spots and you want to do everything to get as high as possible shutter speeds to prevent motion blur. You noticed that  This also means that you're likely to get nicely blurry backgrounds with only the mushroom in focus. It seems you chose this route, so that's good. On a digicompact, I always use the largest aperture available for mushroom shots.
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Mushroom photography tutorial
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This is the way the world ends.
Not with a bang, but a whimper.
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