behind the photo: early mushrooms

Some of my friends told me today they are running out of supplies. (I mean the mushroom images, not the food or toilet paper, happily). I am here to save the situation, my archives do not show the bottom (yet).

All of the mushrooms I share today are not edible species. More then, I did these captures just at lawn of the city, where folks walk out their dogs, where mushrooms absorb all the bad ecology from the cars driving near them, etc. You should not risk eating them by all means, even if they were edible ones.

We dont have this year mushrooms (even morels didnt appear yet - the winter was snowless, the soil is absolutely dry, and the weather changes like old Grandfather Clock - from a sunny and warm day to a windy -5C with rain and snow). Mushrooms dont appreciate that conditions, and they are not in a hurry to come. So, all of the captures below are from last summer. How did I got them? I dont borrow my camera everyday, and macro lenses especially more often are left at home, if I do not plan something. And mushrooms... its quite an ephemerical creatures. Today you stumbled upon them, but had no camera with you, or had poor lighting, or simply was in a hurry... so you postponed it for tomorrow -- and tomorrow you came back they are gone.. or changed, have grown and lost their fresh charm, or dried up, or became a dirty jelly. Mushrooms require immediate action!

So, long story short: last summer, one rainy morning I was going to my office. Luckily, I left my bike home (cause it was a rainy day), and at the green lawn I noticed these mushrooms. I assume, there are three different species here. Some of them were quite fresh, others already have dried up. I used my iphone to take the pics.

Those are already slightly wilted -- which makes them even more photo-friendly. In my opinion, ofc. All of them looked a bit bleak, so I processed all of them in Photoshop, to raise saturation and reddish / yellowish tones. (Compare picture #1 and #2 which is original, as shot).

Happily, the lighting conditions were ok. I forgot about being late to my office, and spent like 20 minutes on my knees, choosing the best angles.. Those mushrooms were mesmerizing, each next little group was better than previous one located nearby... After 20 mins I was able to pull myself from them, holster my iphone and run to the office. And I really forgot about these pictures.

Note: no special macro lens were added. I just put the camera eye close enought to get such macro results. With extra macro lens added to iphone, results would be even more splendid.

These very tiny fungi (I dont know their title) always appear in big groups, and I have a very strong suspicion that their fruiting bodies appear on the traces of something that was left here after the dogs were walked around. It is just a theory I have developed. But I am sure there must be some connection here.

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Those are the same mushrooms, shot with a decent camera and top 16-35mm 2.8L lens (still, not a macro, just a good wide-angle ones). They produced a nice mushroom landscape, but what is better for watching the mushrooms? I hate to say that, but old iphone gave far better results, in terms of macro! (the images below are clickable for hi-res):

Well, you will see the difference if you open the files in Photoshop,-- DSLR-produced files have far less digital noise and more suitable for editing. Especially, if you used the .raw file format, your editing process turns into a piece of cake!

And this image, was produced witha dedicated macro lense Sigma 150mm. No mushroom landscape, and a very little DOP makes it a hard task to get a sharp detailed image in all areas... but look at the blurred background, this tele-macro gave a really artsy result. Three instruments compared in one post - three different results, and you cant say which is better. Each one is good in its own way, i.e. using different lenses benefitted different aspects of the photos.

But everything changes when the lighting is poor. Two images below were captured in the evening lighting, at the end of the light day.

Canon 5D + Sigma 150mm +editing in PS

And another one was captured, again, with iPhone 4. Results quite differ.

This is a bad shot, there is nothing to be proud of; I put it here for comparison. The picture was taken late in the evening, I was cucling home when I noticed these mushrooms on the side of the road. The daylight has already ended. I didn’t have a camera with me, but I had iPhone 4. And here we see that smartphone lost to the camera outright, it didnt produced anything good. (And no editing could save this pic; it simply has no details and depth and colours, to work with). So, each tool has its own limitations, and you have to take that into consideration.

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поэтому... какие можно сделать выводы после сегодняшней лекции? были бы грибы, а чем их сфоткать, мы найдем. и это правильно, товарищи! главное, хорошо смотреть по сторонам, и не пройти мимо, ведь они отлично умеют прятаться. а какие инструменты использовать, решать вам. да это в конце концов неважно, главное уметь пользоваться тем, что дает нам в руки случай и природа.

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Now, back to the image #2 from the beginning of the post. When you take pics in .raw format, there exist very wide editing opportunities. Smartphones do not suggest you that option. And more, there are some limitations that become more visible and significant, affecting the final result in a worse way, only when you start to edit the images. Anyway, here I managed to get some artsy results I am more or less satisfied. These shroom hats make me tremble, regardless of whether they are suitable for the pot or not. Its amazing divercity and weirdness, the endless mutations of forms, the uniqueness of each mushroom, that attracts me to the mushrooms. I love not their edible qualities - my interest is purely about design, its not gastronomic. Here are a few derivatives that I quickly made from the original in Photoshop.

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...они приводят меня в трепетное состояние, независимо от того, будут ли они хороши для кастрюли или нет. на самом деле, я люблю в них совершенно не съедобные качества - мой интерес чисто дизайнерского, а не гастрономического толка. вот несколько производных, которые я на скорую произвел с оригинала в фотошопе.

(my fave x-processing effect applied)

(layers multiplexing with overlay and invers options used)

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I hope you enjoyed this little mushroom trip (absolutely harmless, hehe!)
I apply my entry for Amazing Nature contest hold by @adalger
And also I apply my entry for Behind The Photo contest by @nelyp. Both are great fun, and I really wish I could enter both more often then I do.