Some of my Fungi

[Actinia]

These were mostly taken last autumn in my local wood.

Firstly a few toadstools:
#1

This is a Magpie Fungus, Coprinus picacea, so-called for obvious reasons. The pinkish toadstool in the background is Mycena pura.

#2

This is the Bay Bolete, Boletus badius. This normally has a rather longer stalk.

#3

This is the Beech Milkcap, Lactarius blennius.

#4

This is the Wood Blewit, Lepista nuda. Very tasty, despite the colour!

Comment and criticism welcome.

 

[JustJazzie]

First of all let me say, I LOVE mushroom pictures. I'm totally jealous you have so many species to choose from!

These are all sharp and well exposed, so IMHO you're off to a great start.

I don't have time to break down my c&c by shot but I see the same issues in most of these.
First of all, it seems to be rather harsh lighting. Were you using on camera flash? Could you have set up a tripod and done a longer exposure to eliminate the need for flash? Upped your iso? If you share your settings, and setup, we will be able to help you more!

Second is the angle. No matter what I am taking a photo of, I like to think I am taking its portrait. Would a portrait be flattering from a top down view? I find it gives a subject more character if you see things from ITS perspective. So for a mushroom, down low straight on, perhaps you need to be on the ground for this.

Check out CorrieWhite on flicker, she does some AMAZING mushroom work!

 

[Actinia]

Thanks for your comments. These were mostly taken before I developed my technique for ground level photography described in my earlier posting "Close up at ground level" under Macro Photography. In hindsight, that posting would probably have been better posted here. No-one seems to have commented on it there!

The lighting for these and my other recent post (Some other kinds of Fungi) was either by a ringflash on my Sony A55 DSLR or a ringlight held around the lens of my Canon PowerShot SX260 HS. The ringflash does give a rather flat image, which is improved in post-processing. The ringlight has the advantage that I can see the fungus better to focus onto. Most were taken with the Powershot, largely because I was with a group of fungus experts, trying to note and remember what they were saying, so I tried to avoid too much set-up.

These pics were all taken at ISO 400, and mostly with a negative exposure compensation.

This year's fungus season will soon be upon us. It has been very dry here for the late summer, but we have had much more rain recently. This bodes well for a fungus photo-foray.

I am contemplating buying a couple of LED lightbars to place either side of the fungus to give a better illumination.

I will have a look at CorrieWhite on Flikr.