Tree Fungus

[FrankMi]

While I was out in the woods yesterday I came upon some tree fungus. I'm not happy with how the background came out - too busy, but there is no way to get any more separation between the fungus and the tree!

[ktuli]

Frank,

I always see tree fungi and wish I could manage a decent shot of them. I've tried many times and have never come up with anything. If you come up with any secrets, be sure to let me know!

- Bill

[Tobman]

This one isn't bad. Can you shoot it from the side, so there is something besides the tree as background?

[Ryogenetic]

I like it, its like flowing waves of Fungi, I am not seeing a better angle, did you consider something in post processing like:



It doesnt clear up all of it but I think it focus's on the Fungus more, perhaps add the desat background and a Gaussian blur?

IMHO
Ryo

[MiniChris]

No need to lose the background, nor really to do too much desaturation. I quick selected the fungi, feathered the edge, inversed the selection, then did a B&W layer adjustment, sucking down all the sliders to the left, the blue the most and leaving the yellow almost neutral. Using a blend mode of luminosity, I blended the two images together.

Lastly, I reselected the fungi and did a levels and curves adjustment to perk up the color a tad. I did recrop.

[epmi314]

Fungus on trees... so difficult to get the right composition. This is better than what I have come up with to date. My best was stacked macro effort though it still lacked a bit of inspiration and barely got saved.

[Kris V]

I have tried over 200 times to get decent fungus pictures - so far, I haven't gotten any that are worth posting.....
I just keep trying until I get one right.
Frank, yours looks pretty good to me.

[FrankMi]

Frank,

I always see tree fungi and wish I could manage a decent shot of them. I've tried many times and have never come up with anything. If you come up with any secrets, be sure to let me know!

- Bill

Hi Bill, I'm not sure if I can help as this is a new photo subject for me. It was an overcast day and I took a focus stack of 4 images and merged them similar to post #31 in Project 52 by Frank Miller. Other than that, I used Topaz Adjust to bring out the color and patterns a bit. Hope this gives you something to go on. If you would like to post some of your fungus images, I'm sure there are folks with a lot more experience than I that can help both of us!

[FrankMi]

This one isn't bad. Can you shoot it from the side, so there is something besides the tree as background?

Hi Toby! Thank you for viewinf and commentling. Yes, and I tried that with another image I just posted at The Trunk. It does seem to help but it also gives a different look.

[FrankMi]

I like it, its like flowing waves of Fungi, I am not seeing a better angle, did you consider something in post processing like:



It doesnt clear up all of it but I think it focus's on the Fungus more, perhaps add the desat background and a Gaussian blur?

IMHO
Ryo

Hi Ryo! Thank you for taking the time to edit the image. I hadn't thought about that approach. Perhaps something that subdues the background without losing all the color would work?

[FrankMi]

No need to lose the background, nor really to do too much desaturation. I quick selected the fungi, feathered the edge, inversed the selection, then did a B&W layer adjustment, sucking down all the sliders to the left, the blue the most and leaving the yellow almost neutral. Using a blend mode of luminosity, I blended the two images together.

Lastly, I reselected the fungi and did a levels and curves adjustment to perk up the color a tad. I did recrop.

That looks very interesting, Chris. I'm going to play with that technique and see how I get along. Although it is more vibrant than real life, it certainly is interesting to explore and definitely has the separation from the background I was hoping to see. Thanks for the effort. I like it!

[FrankMi]

Thanks Scott and Kris! It looks like Chris may have some good ideas for dealing with this subject.