I went out on Thursday on a very dull day,so decided that the only thing to do was look for some Fungi,and although I hate using flash it at least got me out of the house and taking a few images.I found these growing on a large dead tree and about 6 feet off the ground,which made getting underneath a little easier...
D200,18-70mm lens sb600 flash
Posted by Phil Shaw on October 28, 2007 at 5:44 AM
Stuart, I'm not sure whether you intended to record the background as dark as this, if so, fair enough; I'm not going to criticise your taste. I think I would have attempted to strike more of a balance between the foreground flash exposure and the background ambient exposure, though. You don't present any of your camera or flash settings, or tell us whether this was taken hand-held or using a tripod, so it is not really possible to give constructive suggestions, except to point out that it is possible to achieve a better balance.
The shadows from the flash are mostly well controlled except for the shadow of the cap at the rear, which falls on the stump - something to look out for next time.
Posted by Andy Astbury on October 28, 2007 at 5:45 AM
Very well detailed and exposed shot
Personally I use available light and go for a longer shutter speed then you dont get that harsh shadow.
But that would never give the same lighting, and in this image the flash has given trendous form to the gills - so what I might be tempted to do is a severe crop to fill the frame with the fungi and get rid of that heavy black BG and as much of the shadow on the tree trunk as possible.
Nice job
Posted by Andy Shepherd on October 28, 2007 at 7:54 AM
Hi Stewart,
Very nice , like it lots , super detail in the gills.
Well now you see what the judges were up against in the WPOY, so for Phil techs were F8/0 @1/60th +2 iso200 w?ball flash hand held.. hope this helps,and thanks for all the suggestions,next time I will try some of these things out, and post another....
Stewart.............
Posted by Paula Graham on October 28, 2007 at 9:27 AM
Discussion
7 repliesD200,18-70mm lens sb600 flash
The shadows from the flash are mostly well controlled except for the shadow of the cap at the rear, which falls on the stump - something to look out for next time.
Personally I use available light and go for a longer shutter speed then you dont get that harsh shadow.
But that would never give the same lighting, and in this image the flash has given trendous form to the gills - so what I might be tempted to do is a severe crop to fill the frame with the fungi and get rid of that heavy black BG and as much of the shadow on the tree trunk as possible.
Nice job
Very nice , like it lots , super detail in the gills.
Regards
Andy...
Stewart.............