Mushrooms with Minolta MD Rokkor 50mm/1.4

miran · Joined: 01 Aug 2012 Posts: 1364 Location: Slovenia

I love shooting mushrooms, simply because they're so weird and different. And there are a lot of them all around. All sizes, shapes and colours. But on the other hand making a good quality photo of a mushroom is difficult (for several reasons). I don't have it figured out yet, but I still like to try. These were made with a Minolta MD Rokkor 50mm/1.4 lens with various combinations of extension tubes. Maybe a 135mm with a closeup lens or a dedicated macro would be better, I don't know. And I need a better tripod. My little gorillapod isn't good enough for this...

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Lena · Joined: 24 Apr 2012 Posts: 495 Location: Pl

#16 look like jellies, not mushrooms Wink

miran · Joined: 01 Aug 2012 Posts: 1364 Location: Slovenia

Ha, and #18 looks like cotton candy. But I don't dare try it. Very Happy

Actually several are probably not mushrooms really, but some other class of fungi to be technically correct. Smile

yinyangbt · Expire: 2012-12-27

Very good series , miran ! What camera ?

Excalibur · Expire: 2014-04-21

Very good hobby and results........I've never thought of shooting mushrooms but do like shooting pond/river weed in sunlight for colours and patterns.

miran · Joined: 01 Aug 2012 Posts: 1364 Location: Slovenia

pepes · Joined: 22 Aug 2012 Posts: 612 Location: Slovakia

Nice series very naturally . I like mushrooms photo.

SonicScot · Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2012 8:44 am Post subject:

Very nice series, great details, colour and textures.

peterqd · Expire: 2014-01-04

Great shots Miran, I know how difficult this can be so well done.

It looks to me as though the equipment you're using is doing the job OK, including the gorillapod. A longer lens would allow you to be further away from the subject and give a greater depth of field, but I can see situations where this might not be helpful - when you want to photograph from a low angle for example. And lighting might not be so easy unless you use a remote flash.

I think it would help to keep practising with what you've got for the time being, and give some extra thought to the settings of the shots - camera angles, clearing away dead leaves and things like that.

I'm not sure about the white balance setting in some of the shots, some of them appear to have quite a strong yellow cast.

miran · Joined: 01 Aug 2012 Posts: 1364 Location: Slovenia

Thanks. The gorillapod really isn't very good for this. I have the medium size version (supposedly intended for mirrorless cameras). It's ok for normal use, but a setup with the lens on a couple of extension tubes and with a macro ring light at the front gets very nose heavy. Maybe the largest gorillapod would be strong enough. The yellow colours are a problem this time of year in the woods. In high summer you get lots of nasty green casts but now all the yellow and brown leaves reflect a lot of warm colours. I set the white balance to around 5000K and this is what I got.

my_photography · Expire: 2016-12-25

Interesting subject and thanks for sharing. Never realise this little mushrooms can be so nice. Need to go and find some - it is not easy to see them in a city

kds315* · Expire: 2021-03-09

Very well done Miran!

calvin83 · Joined: 12 Apr 2009 Posts: 7553 Location: Hong Kong

Great series! I wanna buy some mushroom to eat after reading this thread. Wink

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

Interesting and various mushrooms parade, my favourite photo is @15.

miran · Joined: 01 Aug 2012 Posts: 1364 Location: Slovenia

Thanks all. Smile

@calvin83: Don't do that if you're not sure you can handle them. As much as I like looking for them and photographing them I can't eat them. Just the other day I foolishly ate a few pieces of a common boletus mushroom, I thought I would be ok, it's supposed to be completely harmless. I was then ill for a whole week. Shocked