A few mushrooms, and a techical note

[DanK]

I just got back from a stint in the Adirondacks, where wet weather has encouraged fungi to flower. Here are a couple of shots of mushrooms as they popped up from the forest floor. Nothing special, but I thought I would share them. C&C welcome, of course.

The technical note is a reference to Manfred's point in a recent thread that dodging and burning affects saturation. I had to burn the top of the right mushroom in the bottom shot, and it did desaturate it by adding gray, as Manfred pointed out. However, since I was doing this in LR, there was a very simple fix. I simply increased saturation in the same adjustment brush as I used to burn.

Both are natural light, multiple shots, stacked with Zerene DMap but with haloing removed by touching up from a PMax composite.

[pnodrog]

Very nice, I like the warm colours. However I think you have mistakenly posted the same photo twice. Ooops you corrected it while I was typing.

Just as a side note I sometimes find that the best way to reduce harsh highlights is by a very transparent clone rather than dodging. Such a method can often avoid the grey look more successfully than burning and boosting the saturation of the area. With badly burnt out areas such cloning can also introduce a hint of texture.

However what you have done looks great.

[DanK]

Very nice, I like the warm colours. However I think you have mistakenly posted the same photo twice. Ooops you corrected it while I was typing.

Just as a side note I sometimes find that the best way to reduce harsh highlights is by a very transparent clone rather than dodging. Such a method can often avoid the grey look more successfully than burning and boosting the saturation of the area. With badly burnt out areas such cloning can also introduce a hint of texture.

However what you have done looks great.

Paul,

Thanks very much for the suggestion. Unfortunately, my PS skills are poor enough that I don't know how to create a transparent clone. Can you point me to a link that explains it?

Dan

[Geoff F]

Working with the Blend Mode set to Luminosity can sometimes help. Also selecting a suitable colour and painting on a layer using Colour Blend Mode is another option which sometimes helps.

But for me, the only real alternative is to shoot without direct sunlight and use the Clone Tool for any tweaking of highlight covering up.

Doing a merge of bracketed exposure settings is another trick which I occasionally try. And if I can't get it right at the time of shooting or can only take one shot, do a merge of different Raw conversion adjustments.

[DanK]

Paul,

I found a youtube video that I think may describe the technique you referenced: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCeZtmjjvXs

Dan

[Shadowman]

Nice ones.

[Wavelength]

First image is awesome!!!