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suchen
Once and Future Noob
Registered: 06/28/11
Posts: 8,841
Loc: Shangri-la
Last seen: 3 years, 3 months
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Re: Mushroom Photography Tips [Re: The Thinker]
#18415827 - 06/13/13 08:19 PM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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I can't blow the photo up, so I will say that right now it is difficult in some areas to see the contrast between bright yellows and whites on the Mitrula. Yellow and white mushrooms are inordinately difficult to capture well. Perhaps try slightly darker exposure for slightly more contrast?
-------------------- Rod Tulloss said: The bulb is the bulb. The volva is the volva. They have a very long term realtionship, but they’re “just friends.”
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koraks
Registered: 06/02/03
Posts: 26,697
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Re: Mushroom Photography Tips [Re: The Thinker] 1
#18417467 - 06/14/13 04:14 AM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
The Thinker said: so I'll assume colors or contrast aren't wildly off at least? can I get more input from people on anything they don't like about that pic?
It's really quite well done and better than you'd usually get on the internet. If you're looking for points to improve your future work, here's some you can take into account:
- the yellows seem to be posterized; this usually is the result of either overexposure or digitally compressed dynamic range. You can try to expose a little bit shorter (e.g. -0.5 stop exposure compensation) and shoot in raw instead of jpeg (if you haven't done so). Another cause for posterized colors is the use of a badly balanced light source; regular light bulbs tend to posterize reds and yellows, while cfl's do the same thing to greens and yellows. The light of dusk or dawn may do the same thing, but less pronounced. For pictures like this, you'd ideally use flash.
- the sharpening you applied is too aggressive. Try to apply less sharpening or use a different radius (if you sharpen with unsharp mask).
It's a decent picture as it is; with the above two issues corrected (which may actually be possible if you have a correctly exposed RAW file), it would be really good.
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The Thinker
Registered: 09/01/10
Posts: 4,000
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Re: Mushroom Photography Tips [Re: koraks]
#18417983 - 06/14/13 09:19 AM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
Gravija said: I would probably have a lot more input if I'd ever seen this species before in person. The picture is well lit. It seems homogeneously detailed, which is great for this type of picture. There seem to be three dominant shades of yellow, did you intend to highlight this variability? My only real complaint is that the binomial name isn't italicized
I call these "studio" shots. this is my second time attempting one but I don't like them as much as in-situ shots. they can show a lot more features you can't always compose in the field though. optimally I would have several constant lights from all angles set up but I just put these on a grey card and triggered my flash at different angles during the cam exposure. I meant to highlight stages of growth and color, especially the pinkish one. I've noticed some people think pinkish Mitrula = probable M. lunulatospora ID but micro for several of these different looking forms, all growing together, fit M. elegans
Quote:
suchen said: I can't blow the photo up, so I will say that right now it is difficult in some areas to see the contrast between bright yellows and whites on the Mitrula. Yellow and white mushrooms are inordinately difficult to capture well. Perhaps try slightly darker exposure for slightly more contrast?
here's a slightly bigger one. http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7440/9030202912_9c28d47cc4_o.jpg I tried to get you a 4000 x something pixel one but flickr kept timing out
Quote:
koraks said: It's really quite well done and better than you'd usually get on the internet. If you're looking for points to improve your future work, here's some you can take into account:
- the yellows seem to be posterized; this usually is the result of either overexposure or digitally compressed dynamic range. You can try to expose a little bit shorter (e.g. -0.5 stop exposure compensation) and shoot in raw instead of jpeg (if you haven't done so). Another cause for posterized colors is the use of a badly balanced light source; regular light bulbs tend to posterize reds and yellows, while cfl's do the same thing to greens and yellows. The light of dusk or dawn may do the same thing, but less pronounced. For pictures like this, you'd ideally use flash.
- the sharpening you applied is too aggressive. Try to apply less sharpening or use a different radius (if you sharpen with unsharp mask).
It's a decent picture as it is; with the above two issues corrected (which may actually be possible if you have a correctly exposed RAW file), it would be really good.
what do you mean by too aggressive? harsh/unlike you would see in person? I used 0.5 pixel radius but probably too much strength on it. could posterized colors have resulted from my use of luminance too?
thanks a lot guys. I'll definitely look into your comments also does anyone see a weird red cast over the picture? I didn't yesterday but today I do
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Gravija
Make way for the cavalcade
Registered: 06/28/11
Posts: 9,063
Loc: Chicago, Illinois, USA
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Re: Mushroom Photography Tips [Re: The Thinker]
#18418122 - 06/14/13 09:59 AM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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Thinker, have you tried sharpening just the luminosity channel? I've had mixed results...
-------------------- Listen to my music Here
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The Thinker
Registered: 09/01/10
Posts: 4,000
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Re: Mushroom Photography Tips [Re: Gravija]
#18419313 - 06/14/13 03:18 PM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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don't think so. do you use photoshop? would it be the setting in camera raw under the detail tab that says luminance detail? not sure I've ever messed with that slider but when I reduce luminance noise that setting automatically gets bumped up to 50/100 from 0/100
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Gravija
Make way for the cavalcade
Registered: 06/28/11
Posts: 9,063
Loc: Chicago, Illinois, USA
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Re: Mushroom Photography Tips [Re: The Thinker]
#18419768 - 06/14/13 05:06 PM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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No, I use gimp. Sometimes I will duplicate my image, convert it from rgb to lab, sharpen the l channel, convert back and merge. Here's a cool article that has a couple of sharpening tips for shop-
http://www.tipsquirrel.com/luminosity-sharpening-3-ways/
-------------------- Listen to my music Here
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suchen
Once and Future Noob
Registered: 06/28/11
Posts: 8,841
Loc: Shangri-la
Last seen: 3 years, 3 months
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Re: Mushroom Photography Tips [Re: The Thinker]
#18420196 - 06/14/13 06:46 PM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
The Thinker said: I tried to get you a 4000 x something pixel one but flickr kept timing out
The only reddish hue I see is in the sporocarp directly above the 10cm mark, but I think that is natural.
I believe what koraks is saying about posterization is the concept I was going for in my explanation about loss of contrast in the color areas. Shooting in RAW and perhaps mucking about with the highlights slider, the recovery slider, or a tiny touch to the exposure slider might help? Not sure if those exact sliders exist in Camera Raw as they do in Lightroom 3.
-------------------- Rod Tulloss said: The bulb is the bulb. The volva is the volva. They have a very long term realtionship, but they’re “just friends.”
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koraks
Registered: 06/02/03
Posts: 26,697
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Re: Mushroom Photography Tips [Re: The Thinker]
#18422002 - 06/15/13 04:01 AM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
The Thinker said: what do you mean by too aggressive? harsh/unlike you would see in person? I used 0.5 pixel radius but probably too much strength on it.
When resizing to ca. 20% of the original image size, I generally use a 0.3px radius and, say, 150% sharpening. I find that beyond this (either figure) tends to result in oversharpening as visible by the jagged edges and the granular look on the background in your image.
Quote:
could posterized colors have resulted from my use of luminance too?
I think the yellows are simply overexposed which could very well be the case if you did multiple zaps with the flash gun. I assume your camera can display RGB histograms? Watch those when making shots like these to see that you're not clipping any channels.
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canid
irregular meat sprocket
Registered: 02/26/02
Posts: 11,912
Loc: looking for zeebras, n. c...
Last seen: 2 months, 17 days
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I need to build this (well, something functionally equivalent to this): http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:78071
-------------------- Attn PWN hunters: If you should come across a bluing Psilocybe matching P. pellicolusa please smell it. If you detect a scent reminiscent of Anethole (anise) please preserve a specimen or two for study and please PM me.
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Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist
Registered: 03/10/07
Posts: 48,358
Last seen: 6 days, 23 hours
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Re: Mushroom Photography Tips [Re: canid]
#18995348 - 10/18/13 12:15 PM (10 years, 5 months ago) |
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All that thing does is hold the phone in front of the eyepiece. If you are used to doing it manually, it would be a nice thing to have. If you are ever in san francisco or oakland, there are hacker spaces where you can go to use 3d printers for free.
But its not really the best solution for microscope photos because the eyepiece converts the light into a form visible to your eye, then the lens in your camera phone converts it back again to the other form before it hits the sensor. The more lenses you have the more distortion you get, and also any speck of dust on any of the lenses will turn up in your photos as black spots.
A better solution is to couple the light coming to the eyepiece more directly to the ccd of a camera. This can be done with a dslr microscope adaptor from microscopenet.com, or you could take apart an old camera (one with a broken zoom would be perfect) and use a couple lenses to focus the light directly on to the sensor.
A 3d printer is a good thing to use to print the 23mm eyepiece adaptor and various parts you would need to hold it together, or you could take apart an old eyepiece and use a bunch of epoxy to make it all solid.
Regarding mushroom photography tips, I have been meaning to bump this thread to share a few things that I have learned recently. These are for my canon 60d, other dslr's probably have equivelent features.
If taking a pic of a white mushroom, always turn on highlight tone priority. This makes it so the colors of the mushroom don't get blown out so easily, and you can expose the whole frame more. Without it if you turn down the exposure so much that the white mushroom is not blown out, the background and other stuff will be pretty dark.
If you are taking a picture of a dark mushroom, turn on the auto lighting optimizer to strong. This does the exact opposite of highlight tone priority, and affects the shadows. You'll get more detail in the shadows.
Always use reflectors to bounce a little but of light back up into the upper gills and stem of the mushroom. Don't bounce too much light though, or your photos will end up looking like Taylor Lockwoods.
Here is the reflector I use. It is cheap and awesome, and you can use the white diffuser on the inside if your mushrooms happen to be in direct sunlight. Much better than carrying around a white umbrella. Get 2 of them. I got mine cheaper on ebay. Always bring some pretty girl(s) along to hold your reflectors, otherwise you will find that you often need either an easel or 4 hands to get your shot right. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ex-Pro-Photographic-Light-Reflector-Collapsible/dp/B000RGPUKM
If you don't feel like setting up a reflector or did not bring anything with a light color, you can use the flash, but turn it down a whole lot to around -2 or -3 so you don't get harsh shadows. If you must use the flash at full power, turn the camera on its side or upside down so the gills and upper stem aren't in a harsh shadow.
Always use the largest aperture you can to get all of the mushroom(s) in focus for best clarity. It is best to error on the side of an aperture too small, because the diffraction blur is much less bad than the blur caused by having part of the mushroom out of focus. If you are going to have part of the mushroom out of focus, make sure it is the part furthest away from the camera. If you use a tripod and dslr you can precisely determine how small of an aperture you need. Some people use the DOF preview button for this, but a better way is just to take a picture and then look at it closely. Make sure you adjust the focus perfectly in the middle of the depth of field that you want, then close the aperture until everything in your subject is in focus. You can also hold down the DOF preview button and with the other hand change the aperture, preferably in live view mode while zoomed in to either the front mushroom or the back mushrom. Still I have better luck just taking a picture and then adjusting a few things and take another and another until the shot is perfect. Then delete all the first ones and keep just the perfect one.
That is one reason a tripod is important - not only does it eliminate motion blur, it also keeps the camera in exactly the same place so you can precisely set the depth of field. If you hand hold the camera, it will be moving back and fourth between shots and you will need to shoot with a smaller aperture to make up for this impreciseness. When I handhold I always overestimate the f-stop on purpose to give me a bit of wiggle room, and usually flash the mushroom to make up for the lack of light due to a small aperture.
One last thing, if you have a dslr and you use flash, get a ring flash! They are awesome for macro shots and not so awesome for mushrooms that are more than 8 feet away or so. I use the $100 ring flash from ebay and amazon, the phoenix smartflash 46c or something. It has cheap construction but works great, and I have been carrying it in my backpack for 4 months and it has not broken. Any electronics that can withstand that kind of abuse has my respect.
One last tip, when doing taxonomic shots don't forget to cut one of the mushrooms in half to show the context, and after you are done taking the shots, take one more with potassium hydroxide on the gills, stem, cap and context. Since you can't do koh reactions with dried material, you'll be glad you spent the extra 30 seconds to do this later when you try to id your mushroom.
Finally, save your mushrooms in a paper bag and write the photo number that the camera assigns the picture on the bag. That way you will not have to wonder which dried collection goes with which photo. Also write anything that is not obvious from the photos on the bag, such as the nearby trees, odor, taste, cap texture, elevation, gps coordinates and perhaps the range of physical dimensions of the mushrooms in the collection.
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Gravija
Make way for the cavalcade
Registered: 06/28/11
Posts: 9,063
Loc: Chicago, Illinois, USA
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All that Highlight Tone Priority does is underexpose your image by slowing the ISO and then digitally lifting the darkest spots during processing. That's why the lowest you can set your ISO to is 200 when you have HTP set to on. I think it is better to shoot in raw and underexpose the image, if I must, and fix it in post. HTP and ALO are only really useful if you shoot in jpg and don't plan on any post production.
Personally, I have no problem carrying a white diffusion umbrella around. I have a loop of fabric on my shoulder bag that I sheathe it in when I'm not using it and I just stake it in the ground or log when I need to soften the highlights. I'm on my second $5 umbrella, I think I'll spend ten on my next one. They probably wouldn't break if I stopped using them to carry big mushrooms that won't fit in my tackle boxes.
-------------------- Listen to my music Here
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Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist
Registered: 03/10/07
Posts: 48,358
Last seen: 6 days, 23 hours
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Re: Mushroom Photography Tips [Re: Gravija]
#18996046 - 10/18/13 03:04 PM (10 years, 5 months ago) |
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But since I don‘t own a computer and don't plan on post processing, htp is a good idea for white mushrooms, right?
I did like my white umbrella, and good point about being able to stake it. Mine was shredded to the point where people would laugh at me when I used it. I plan to get another, but they are super hard to find in Mexico.
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Gravija
Make way for the cavalcade
Registered: 06/28/11
Posts: 9,063
Loc: Chicago, Illinois, USA
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Yes, both of those features are especially useful to someone in your position. I want hot Mexican chicks to hold my reflector.
-------------------- Listen to my music Here
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canid
irregular meat sprocket
Registered: 02/26/02
Posts: 11,912
Loc: looking for zeebras, n. c...
Last seen: 2 months, 17 days
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3d printers are great, and I want one, but I've got a milling machine.
[edit: woops, wrong thread]
-------------------- Attn PWN hunters: If you should come across a bluing Psilocybe matching P. pellicolusa please smell it. If you detect a scent reminiscent of Anethole (anise) please preserve a specimen or two for study and please PM me.
Edited by canid (10/29/13 05:45 AM)
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happyfunguy
teonanacatl acolyte
Registered: 09/03/13
Posts: 278
Loc: Clark County, WA
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Re: Mushroom Photography Tips [Re: canid]
#19064766 - 10/31/13 05:27 PM (10 years, 4 months ago) |
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the iPhone app "camera plus" has a decent macro capability and currently costs $0.99
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Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist
Registered: 03/10/07
Posts: 48,358
Last seen: 6 days, 23 hours
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Re: Mushroom Photography Tips [Re: happyfunguy]
#20049555 - 05/28/14 12:25 AM (9 years, 9 months ago) |
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lusk217
Stranger
Registered: 03/17/15
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o8u
Taxa Collector
Registered: 10/30/12
Posts: 4,148
Loc: United States
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Re: Mushroom Photography Tips [Re: lusk217]
#21424522 - 03/17/15 09:42 PM (9 years, 13 days ago) |
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It's a non-active coprinoid. Compare to Coprinellus micaceus. For ID requests, you'll want to create a new thread. This one is for photography discussion, not mushroom identification.
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Tamedher
Stranger
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Re: Mushroom Photography Tips [Re: o8u]
#21535478 - 04/11/15 11:58 PM (8 years, 11 months ago) |
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Thanks im new to this , please help!! how do i post an ID forum ??
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o8u
Taxa Collector
Registered: 10/30/12
Posts: 4,148
Loc: United States
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Re: Mushroom Photography Tips [Re: Tamedher]
#21535606 - 04/12/15 12:57 AM (8 years, 11 months ago) |
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