Turkeytail Mushrooms

I spotted these turkeytail mushrooms on a dead tree branch that was lying on the ground next to my house.  What initially caught my attention was the way the mushrooms had appeared to form in layers.  Upon closer inspection, I could make out slight hints of color in the formations.

I quickly went back inside and grabbed my camera.  I chose to use my new 100-400mm lens and three extension tubes.  The long lens would give me good working distance between the camera sensor and the mushrooms, and the extension tubes provided for a closer focusing distance than the lens would have had otherwise.  This allowed me to zoom in on the mushrooms and fill the frame with them.

I wanted to maintain complete depth of field so, with the camera mounted on a tripod, I very carefully positioned the back of the camera so it would be parallel to the mushrooms.  When the subject is flat, this is sufficient to maintain sharpness throughout the frame no matter what aperture is used.  However, the mushrooms were not all on the same plane, so it was necessary to use a smaller aperture.  I chose to the smallest aperture I could, f/40.  I probably could have used a slightly larger aperture, such as f/16 or f/22, but since the mushrooms weren’t moving and the camera was on a tripod, I wasn’t concerned about the long shutter speed.

Through the viewfinder, I could see the shapes, patterns, and slight hints of color in the mushrooms. To bring out these details, I used Lightroom to increase the contrast, adjust the highlights and shadows, and increase the vibrance and saturation.  Finally, I opened the picture in Photoshop to further refine the photograph by making some slight adjustments using the Levels dialog box.  This combination of Lightroom and Photoshop allowed the details within the mushrooms to really stand out and create a very interesting image.

Settings:  Canon 5D Mk IV, 400mm w/ extension tubes, 3.2 sec, f/40