Mushroom on log

[nicuRNmama]

This is a picture of some mushrooms on a log that I took earlier this summer at a wild flower sanctuary. What do you think about the composition? Is it too grainy? Is the depth of field too shallow? Are the colors too intense?

Thanks for looking.

Nikon D5000
Nikkor 55-200mm Zoom
taken 6/11/11
iso 800
200mm
f/5.6
1/25
no flash

[milosh]

Composition: I would like to see either only one mushroom, or one a bit behind the other. Right now, they are visually equally important but one is totally out of focus and it's a bit too close to the frame edge. Even if they both were in focus, they would be competing for attention and creating a visual tension, which is not good. You need to pay more attention to placement of objects in your frame and then about the depth of field you want to achieve.

At 200mm and f5.6 your depth of field is extremely shallow, and it also looks like there was a slight camera shake. The photo is grainy due to high ISO you used. Based on all of this, I guess you didn't use a tripod. If you had a tripod, you should have used ISO100 and let's say f11, which would give you a shutter speed of around 1 second. If you don't have a tripod, I suggest you get at least a cheap basic one, it would help you get these kind of shots. The colours are fine.

[nicuRNmama]

Thanks for your input. I totally get what you're saying about the competing subjects being distracting - I'll keep that in mind when I'm out shooting. I do have a tripod, but I prefer to shoot handheld as I often take my 5yr old daughter with me and hate to carry extra equipment - this situation will however be changing next week when she starts kindergarten so I should probably think about working more with the tripod.

[Krusty79]

I also find the mushroom on the left distracting. I would suggest zooming in more on the primary mushroom to show more detail.

Someone said in another thread that our eye tends to like an odd number of subjects, which seems to be true, so I would keep that in mind.

[nicuRNmama]

Do you like this composition better? I know the picture is rather grainy from the high ISO I used.

Thank you Krusty79 for your comments. I'll keep the odd number tip in mind.

[Krusty79]

Yes, that's better. Like you said, it's grainy, but you have the right idea.

[NgaiHill]

Here's my two cents....

As already mentioned the second fungi on the left was distracting, the crop definitely improved the composition.
The other thing I noticed was the damage to the smaller of the pair of fungi that was your subject. I've been told by judges that if you're are going to shoot close ups of plants, flowers etc make sure you shoot perfect/v.good specimens.
Personally I would have looked for a better specimen - maybe the one in the back or done a little "selective pruning" to removed the damaged one from the picture - perhaps not advisable at a wild flower sanctuary!
I really like what you were to trying to achieve here though, keep trying!

[nicuRNmama]

Thanks for the feedback NgaiHill! I don't think the damaged mushroom even really registered in my head until you pointed it out. That does make sense, though, to take close-ups only of perfect specimens.