Are You a Fun Guy or Girl?

Here is a compact close-up kit well suited to iPhone photography of mushrooms.
IMG_7811.JPG

Some fold-up reflectors and skewer sticks pained red (so they don’t get lost) to prop up the reflectors, a piece of plastic to kneel on, or lie down if you prefer. A white balance card (with 18% grey card on the back), viewer magnifier to get a better idea of what is in focus, and a clip-on filter holder with a polarizing filter and a couple of close-up lenses.
The larger reflector on the right and plastic are the size I use for DSLR stuff.
At my close-up photography workshops each participant gets 3 reflectors (the large size) and 3 sticks, a piece of plastic, and a white balance card (not as shown). You can make a very workable white balance card from a piece of photo mount board, not mat-board. You will find it is whiter than the brightest printer paper you can find.
For my iPhone kit I use the folded size reflectors and the plastic has one more fold so they all easily fit into my iPhone fanny pack. The white balance card plus reflectors and plastic is about 3x5” and 3/4” thick. Quite pocketable as well.
The polarizer really helps to cut glare on glossy mushroom tops.
You get better depth of field using the 2x lens instead of the standard wide angle but it doesn’t focus as close so the close-up lenses provide the closer focusing distance. The tele lens also takes in a smaller background area which is a distinct advantage when the background is untidy or has bright spots.
The items not shown are the ground level tripod and a compact umbrella. The tripod will allow you to use ISO 25 even in low light. The umbrella is used to provide shade in the background in the event of unwanted bright spots, or to focus attention to the foreground.
The reflectors are used to make the lighting more 3D, adding fill light under the cap, and accent lighting to the sides, just like a portrait.
You can find the silvered cardboard at a cake supply shop. It is what they put the cake on. Or you can make your own by gluing crumpled tinfoil on cardboard. I use the shiny silver, matte silver, and plain white, depending on the amount of light needed. You would not normally use shiny foil for photographic reflectors since in bright light they make uneven reflections but in the woods on an overcast day there isn’t much light to reflect so the shiny ones are OK.
I don’t always have all this stuff with me but once you have used reflectors for lighting you miss them immediately when you find a close-up subject. It takes longer to get everything set up but the results are definitely worthwhile.
I always tell my close-up students to be careful not to trample all the surrounding ground. You don’t want to be causing undue destruction.
Think about mushrooms the same as people. You want to be at their level. Just like you don’t photograph small children from a standing adult height, you kneel down to their eye level. Otherwise you just photograph the tops of their heads.
 
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FundyBrian said:
Here is a compact close-up kit well suited to iPhone photography of mushrooms. View attachment 101090
Some fold-up reflectors and skewer sticks pained red (so the don’t get lost) to prop up the reflectors, a piece of plastic to kneel on, or lie down if you prefer. A white balance card (with 18% grey card on the back), viewer magnifier to get a better idea of what is in focus, and a clip-on filter holder with a polarizing filter and a couple of close-up lenses.
The larger reflector on the right and plastic are the size I use for DSLR stuff.
At my close-up photography workshops each participant gets 3 reflectors (the large size) and 3 sticks, a piece of plastic, and a white balance card (not as shown). You can make a very workable white balance card from a piece of photo mount board, not mat-board. You will find it is whiter than the brightest printer paper you can find.
For my iPhone kit I use the folded size reflectors and the plastic has one more fold so they all easily fit into my iPhone fanny pack. The white balance card plus reflectors and plastic is about 3x5” and 3/4” thick. Quite pocketable as well.
The polarizer really helps to cut glare on glossy mushroom tops.
You get better depth of field using the 2x lens instead of the standard wide angle but it doesn’t focus as close so the close-up lenses provide the closer focusing distance. The tele lens also takes in a smaller background area which is a distinct advantage when the background is untidy or has bright spots.
The items not shown are the ground level tripod and a compact umbrella. The tripod will allow you to use ISO 25 even in low light. The umbrella is used to provide shade in the background in the event of unwanted bright spots, or to focus attention to the foreground.
The reflectors are used to make the lighting more 3D, adding fill light under the cap, and accent lighting to the sides, just like a portrait.
You can find the silvered cardboard at a cake supply shop. It is what they put the cake on. Or you can make your own by gluing crumpled tinfoil on cardboard. I use the shiny silver, matte silver, and plain white, depending on the amount of light needed. You would not normally use shiny foil for photographic reflectors since in bright light they make uneven reflections but in the woods on an overcast day there isn’t much light to reflect so the shiny ones are OK.
I don’t always have all this stuff with me but once you have used reflectors for lighting you miss them immediately when you find a close-up subject. It takes longer to get everything set up but the results are definitely worthwhile.
I always tell my close-up students to be careful not to trample all the surrounding ground. You don’t want to be causing undue destruction.
Think about mushrooms the same as people. You want to be at their level. Just like you don’t photograph small children from a standing adult height, you kneel down to their eye level. Otherwise you just photograph the tops of their heads.
Click to expand...
What I need to see is a photo of the set up around the mushrooms or is that something you sort of judge when you know what the lighting is?
 
ImageArt said:
What I need to see is a photo of the set up around the mushrooms or is that something you sort of judge when you know what the lighting is?
Click to expand...

I can make a picture of the set-up next chance I get. But it is true that each situation has to be made up to suit. You start by studying the direction of the available light.
 
FundyBrian said:
I can make a picture of the set-up next chance I get. But it is true that each situation has to be made up to suit. You start by studying the direction of the available light.
Click to expand...
I’ve been looking at this as I am thinking of doing a bit of still life photography and there are quite a lot of good internet sites who explain it quite well. What camera app do you prefer to use for this? I would probably use Camera+ or ProCamera.
 
ImageArt said:
I’ve been looking at this as I am thinking of doing a bit of still life photography and there are quite a lot of good internet sites who explain it quite well. What camera app do you prefer to use for this? I would probably use Camera+ or ProCamera.
Click to expand...

There isn’t ONE camera that is best for all situations. It depends on the situation, your objectives and your preferences for the control layout.
First you have to decide if you can be happy with regular mobile quality and just view you photos on mobile devices and post them online at reduced resolution. If you want better than that then it gets truly complicated. Just one basic fact: the optimum exposure setting for a jpeg is different, sometimes a lot different, than for an optimum DNG. So selecting RAW + jpeg as a save option is useless.
I twice started writing a very long text and deleted both so this is the short version.

What I find essential is easy instant access to the most important settings without having to search for them in menus.
- wide & tele lens selection
- manual ISO setting for lowest possible 25
- white balance lock, to measure and save WB setting from WB card. Many cameras have WB settings but no way to measure or lock WB from a card. The card is your only reliable reference in many cases.
- select file type to save, ie dng, but NOT dng + jpeg
- save all 3 HDR brackets!
- Focus Peaking - precise focus in closeups is always difficult.
- exposure compensation
-Edit: Live Histogram
- ability to select shutter speed slower than 1/3 sec.
At this point I’m favouring PureShot as a camera and Fusion to process the brackets but it doesn’t accept dng. Camera+ and ProCamera or 645 Pro also look like good choices. Really, not one of them does everything I want. Prime has wonderful focus peaking. RAW+, Flannl, Halide, are also worth looking at.
I really like Fusion for quick and easy HDR but although it looks pretty good in a small size it doesn’t have the best image quality.
Once you go to max quality it means carefully recording your mobile DNG images and processing them outside of mobile. Sorry to say. I’m hoping this will soon improve.

Edit: Only DNG files are unmodified by the iOS internal image enhancements. At first glance the DNG files look rougher than ordinary jpegs but this is because a lot of noise reduction has already obliterated all the finer details in the jpeg images and you can’t turn any of that off.
 
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JillyG said:
Are they Turkey Tails? Good find because they’re well camouflaged.:thumbs:
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Turkey Tail is certainly a more descriptive common name than Trametes versicolor – or Coriolus versicolor or Polyporus versicolor. And also Multi-zoned something or other, or Many-coloured polypore. But apparently all the same thing.
 
FundyBrian said:
The first one looks like an Amanita of the deadly poisonous variety. -Spring Amanita, Death Cap, Destroying Angel. All very similar. Nice pic, though.
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Well Brian, Destroying Angel might look like that in Canada, but not here. Destroying Angel here is one of the most deadly because it looks very similar to several edible mushrooms and once eaten will certainly kill if not treated quickly. It’s certainly not red and white. The first one of Ann’s is indeed an Amanita (muscaria) or Fly Agaric.
 
JillyG said:
Well Brian, Destroying Angel might look like that in Canada, but not here. Destroying Angel here is one of the most deadly because it looks very similar to several edible mushrooms and once eaten will certainly kill if not treated quickly. It’s certainly not red and white. The first one of Ann’s is indeed an Amanita (muscaria) or Fly Agaric.
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Yes. The book says the colours can be so variable with these they are hard to tell apart.
 
I’ve been waiting for a cloudy day to photograph some mushrooms but it has been so dry I could only find 3 in an hour.
IMG_8638.JPG

Coral fungus. Before. Typical dark shadows below.
IMG_8639.JPG

I added a matte silver reflector at the lower right to fill in the dark shadow area a bit. I used a silver reflector from the left rear to add some 3D definition as rim lighting. At the end I wanted to have better separation from the background. I found I needed to raise the iPhone about 1 cm to reduce the area in the background. Then I made a shadow in the background with my hat to provide greater separation.
 
FundyBrian said:
I’ve been waiting for a cloudy day to photograph some mushrooms but it has been so dry I could only find 3 in an hour.
View attachment 101364
Coral fungus. Before. Typical dark shadows below.
View attachment 101365
I added a matte silver reflector at the lower right to fill in the dark shadow area a bit. I used a silver reflector from the left rear to add some 3D definition as rim lighting. At the end I wanted to have better separation from the background. I found I needed to raise the iPhone about 1 cm to reduce the area in the background. Then I made a shadow in the background with my hat to provide greater separation.
Click to expand...
Yes, I think we have the same problem here. I couldn’t believe that I didn’t find any in the garden apart from some teeny-tiny ones.
 
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