How I Shoot Woodland Mushroom Photography
Pete Bristo
16,754 views
How I Shoot Woodland Mushroom Photography
It’s that time of year again when the weather starts to change and autumn is just around the corner. After the recent rain showers and temperatures dropping to around 6°C this morning, the mushrooms are beginning to appear in the woodland.
I’m really looking forward to the next few weeks as the leaves start to change colour, creating some fantastic opportunities for colourful and atmospheric mushroom photography. There are going to be plenty of early starts to catch the mushrooms in that beautiful soft morning glow.
For today’s shoot I’m using my Nikon Z9 with the Nikon Z 105mm f/2.8 Macro lens. The 105mm is incredibly sharp and, when used wide open, produces a beautiful soft, dreamy bokeh that works really well for woodland photography.
Although I do use a tripod, photographing mushrooms means getting very low to the ground. I want to get underneath the mushroom cap and capture the gills, which often means working at ground level and finding an angle that gives the image a more intimate feel.
For lighting, I carry a small pouch of portable LED lights. This includes a small LED panel, two tiny cube lights and three bendy LED lights with removable diffusers. These lights can be used as a soft light or, with the diffuser removed, as a more focused spotlight. They can also be fitted with barn doors and filters. Together, they effectively become my own little mini studio in the woodland.
One of the challenges with mushroom photography is creating that lovely soft background while keeping the whole mushroom sharp. Shooting the 105mm wide open gives me beautiful bokeh, but the depth of field can be incredibly shallow – sometimes around just 1mm.
This means I need to focus stack my images. I’ve found that with the 105mm at around 30cm from the subject, shooting at f/3.2 and taking 50 images using the lowest focus step gives me roughly 4.5cm of usable focus depth – enough to cover the mushroom.
Processing 50 images in Photoshop can put quite a strain on the computer, so I use dedicated focus-stacking software instead. My software of choice is Helicon Focus, which does a great job of combining all those individual frames into one fully focused image.
My ideal conditions for mushroom photography would be a damp, cold and misty morning, with dew dripping from the mushroom caps and that beautiful soft woodland light.
Autumn is coming, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the woodland has to offer!
If you would like to see me post processing my fine art images please check out some of my previous videos. The latest one is here How I Post Process my Fine Art Landscape P...
I also have quite a few videos showing both capturing fine art images and post Production of Fine art images, this is the most popular of them Long Exposure Photography Hornsea Fine Art...
All my editing is done on a MacBook Pro M4 running Lightroom, Photoshop and Final Cut Pro at the same time with ease. Ive bought a good quality monitor a Benq pd2730s 5K 27in monitor which is not cheap but great quality. Its also has a matt screen giving less eye strain when editing.
Below is a list of Camera Kit that I use to make these videos all have been purchased by myself. @NikonEurope. @KaseFiltersGlobal. @lowepro. @ACCSOON
Stills Kit
Nikon Z9 Camera Body
Nikon 24-120mm f4 mid range zoom Lens
Nikon 14-30mm f4 wide zoom lens
Nikon 105mm Macro Lens
Kase Armour Magnetic 100mm Filters
Accsoon Semoo
Benro Mach3 Carbon Fibre Tripod
Benro GD3WH-3 way geared head
Lowepro Backpack
Video Kit
Nikon Z6iii Camera Body
Accsoon SeeMo 4K
Apple iPhone 16pro Max
Insta360 Luna Ultra
Insta360 Mic Pro
dji osmo Action 5 Pro
Dii mini5 Pro Drone
#woodlandmushroomphotography #mushroomphotography #macrophotography #focusstacking #nikonz9 #fineartphotography #photoshop #lightroom #learnphotography #photography_tips #heliconfocus
Check out one of my previous videos Lone Tree & Lighthouses in Wales at Lone Tree & Lighthouse Landscape Photography
If you would like to see one of my post processing videos check out Fine Art Post Processing
One of my favourite locations is the Pin Mill Boat Graveyard where I shot some beautiful Fine Art Long Exposure Images Pin Mill Fine Art Photography
My background music is from @uppbeat
Music Tracks were Serenity-ra-main-version
remember-reworked-christopher-galovan-main-version
Follow me on Social Media
Facebook - Facebook: pete.bristo
Instagram - Instagram: pete_bristo
Flickr - https://www.flickr.com/photos/1523942...
If you would like to seen more of my videos in the future please Like and Subscribe my channel @PeteBristoPhoto Many thanks for visiting my channel.
13 Comments
Love the mushroom shots, they looked amazing, many thanks for sharing
I really enjoy your channel with your beautiful photography. See you on the next one. Take Care. Cheers!
Do we need a macro lens for macro photography? or a nomal lens will also work?
How I Shoot Woodland Mushroom Photography
Pete Bristo
16,754 views
How I Shoot Woodland Mushroom Photography
It’s that time of year again when the weather starts to change and autumn is just around the corner. After the recent rain showers and temperatures dropping to around 6°C this morning, the mushrooms are beginning to appear in the woodland.
I’m really looking forward to the next few weeks as the leaves start to change colour, creating some fantastic opportunities for colourful and atmospheric mushroom photography. There are going to be plenty of early starts to catch the mushrooms in that beautiful soft morning glow.
For today’s shoot I’m using my Nikon Z9 with the Nikon Z 105mm f/2.8 Macro lens. The 105mm is incredibly sharp and, when used wide open, produces a beautiful soft, dreamy bokeh that works really well for woodland photography.
Although I do use a tripod, photographing mushrooms means getting very low to the ground. I want to get underneath the mushroom cap and capture the gills, which often means working at ground level and finding an angle that gives the image a more intimate feel.
For lighting, I carry a small pouch of portable LED lights. This includes a small LED panel, two tiny cube lights and three bendy LED lights with removable diffusers. These lights can be used as a soft light or, with the diffuser removed, as a more focused spotlight. They can also be fitted with barn doors and filters. Together, they effectively become my own little mini studio in the woodland.
One of the challenges with mushroom photography is creating that lovely soft background while keeping the whole mushroom sharp. Shooting the 105mm wide open gives me beautiful bokeh, but the depth of field can be incredibly shallow – sometimes around just 1mm.
This means I need to focus stack my images. I’ve found that with the 105mm at around 30cm from the subject, shooting at f/3.2 and taking 50 images using the lowest focus step gives me roughly 4.5cm of usable focus depth – enough to cover the mushroom.
Processing 50 images in Photoshop can put quite a strain on the computer, so I use dedicated focus-stacking software instead. My software of choice is Helicon Focus, which does a great job of combining all those individual frames into one fully focused image.
My ideal conditions for mushroom photography would be a damp, cold and misty morning, with dew dripping from the mushroom caps and that beautiful soft woodland light.
Autumn is coming, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the woodland has to offer!
If you would like to see me post processing my fine art images please check out some of my previous videos. The latest one is here How I Post Process my Fine Art Landscape P...
I also have quite a few videos showing both capturing fine art images and post Production of Fine art images, this is the most popular of them Long Exposure Photography Hornsea Fine Art...
All my editing is done on a MacBook Pro M4 running Lightroom, Photoshop and Final Cut Pro at the same time with ease. Ive bought a good quality monitor a Benq pd2730s 5K 27in monitor which is not cheap but great quality. Its also has a matt screen giving less eye strain when editing.
Below is a list of Camera Kit that I use to make these videos all have been purchased by myself. @NikonEurope. @KaseFiltersGlobal. @lowepro. @ACCSOON
Stills Kit
Nikon Z9 Camera Body
Nikon 24-120mm f4 mid range zoom Lens
Nikon 14-30mm f4 wide zoom lens
Nikon 105mm Macro Lens
Kase Armour Magnetic 100mm Filters
Accsoon Semoo
Benro Mach3 Carbon Fibre Tripod
Benro GD3WH-3 way geared head
Lowepro Backpack
Video Kit
Nikon Z6iii Camera Body
Accsoon SeeMo 4K
Apple iPhone 16pro Max
Insta360 Luna Ultra
Insta360 Mic Pro
dji osmo Action 5 Pro
Dii mini5 Pro Drone
#woodlandmushroomphotography #mushroomphotography #macrophotography #focusstacking #nikonz9 #fineartphotography #photoshop #lightroom #learnphotography #photography_tips #heliconfocus
Check out one of my previous videos Lone Tree & Lighthouses in Wales at Lone Tree & Lighthouse Landscape Photography
If you would like to see one of my post processing videos check out Fine Art Post Processing
One of my favourite locations is the Pin Mill Boat Graveyard where I shot some beautiful Fine Art Long Exposure Images Pin Mill Fine Art Photography
My background music is from @uppbeat
Music Tracks were Serenity-ra-main-version
remember-reworked-christopher-galovan-main-version
Follow me on Social Media
Facebook - Facebook: pete.bristo
Instagram - Instagram: pete_bristo
Flickr - https://www.flickr.com/photos/1523942...
If you would like to seen more of my videos in the future please Like and Subscribe my channel @PeteBristoPhoto Many thanks for visiting my channel.