This week’s cover image
Dig out your macro lens and head down to the woods, as the next few weeks should see a plethora of spectacular fungi appearing up and down the country. Guy Edwardes is your guide
This striking photo, of porcelain fungus in the New Forest National Park, was taken by Guy Edwardes.
Ihave spent the past 25 years refining my technique for capturing creative and engaging images of this fascinating autumnal subject. Here I’ll share my tips for finding, lighting, and composing great fungi images, often with minimal equipment. I will also explain my method of focus stacking to achieve sharpness throughout the subject, whilst
maintaining beautiful background bokeh effects. This is a subject that is accessible to everyone. In the UK we have some truly dazzling species, although even the most common fungi can look great when certain creative techniques are applied.
Finding and identifying fungi
With fungi photography I find that the skill is as much in finding the best specimens in the best positions as it is the technical knowledge of how to compose and light the subject and get it all sharp and well-exposed. Expect to spend a lot of time crawling around on the ground getting extremely muddy! All-over waterproof clothing is the order of the day with fungi photography. It takes time to search for fresh, perfect, undamaged specimens. I usually reject any that have been damaged by slugs, snails, mice or moulds. Also, any fungi that are too dirty to be carefully brushed clean without bruising them.
You need to look very closely to find fungi, as many are small and hard to spot amongst the leaf litter or on the
underside of fallen trunks. Search in shady places, such as inside rotted out logs and underneath fallen timber. It’s also worth using a magnifying glass to scan for smaller fungi and slime moulds. A head torch can be really useful for checking in darker spots on the underside of fallen tree trunks. Don’t expect to wander around a wood for an hour or so and come across great shots. You might be lucky, but it’s more likely to take hours to find some fine specimens. Fungi can be found virtually everywhere. However, old deciduous woodlands with lots of fallen decaying timber tend to be the most productive habitat with the greatest variety of species. Areas of unimproved grassland can also be good, as you’re likely to find colourful and photogenic waxcaps, whose caps split and curl, revealing their gills. From midSeptember to mid-November is the period when you’re likely to find the greatest number and variety of fungi. Ideally the weather conditions should be mild and wet. There’s often a fresh flush of fruiting fungi immediately after a rainy period. They can emerge very quickly, so it’s important to be out searching the moment it stops raining if you want to catch them in perfect condition! Many fungi species look very similar but thankfully there are some excellent resources to help identify them. Roger Phillips’ book, Mushrooms, is very good and even apps such as Seek and Shroomify can provide a useful starting point for identification
(although they shouldn’t be relied upon!). If I’m still stuck, I will turn to online resources such as First Nature or request help from one of the excellent Facebook groups like British & Irish Fungi.
Lighting
Creative lighting can really transform fungi photographs. Think about the parts of the fungus you might want to emphasise, or how you might use lighting to help separate it from its surroundings. Backlighting can be particularly effective. Many woodland fungi appear in dark shady places, so it can be nice to maintain this feel in your photographs. Natural light is often best, but you may then need to control the contrast in a scene using reflectors, diffusers, or artificial light.
Composition
I often utilise the shallow depth of field and narrow field of view afforded by a telephoto lens to help separate the subject from the surrounding clutter of vegetation, fallen leaves and sticks and to achieve a more uniform background tone. I normally work with a wide aperture and in combination with focus stacking for sharpness throughout the entire fungus. As with all close-up subjects, it’s important to get the back of your camera parallel to the plane of the subject to enable you to get as much of it as sharp as possible. This is especially important when using a wide aperture for shallow depth of field but is worth always bearing in mind whether you’re photographing a group of fungi, a pair, or a close-up detail. As a general rule if a fungi has gills I like to be able to see those gills in my image, so I’m often down low and shooting slightly up at them.
As with many other nature subjects, the background of an image is often just as important as the subject itself when it comes to composition. Keep checking the background for any potentially distracting elements such as out-of-focus twigs or grasses and for annoying bright highlights. This is not always easy when you’re shooting with a wide aperture for shallow depth of field, because distractions may not be that obvious on first inspection. Once you have your composition set, it’s always worth manually turning the focusing ring throughout its entire range of travel (whilst looking through the viewfinder or in live view) to check for any distractions that may have gone unnoticed, enabling you to remove them or recompose before taking the shot.
Background bokeh
Interesting bokeh created from out-of-focus background highlights can add a lot of atmosphere and interest to fungi images. It can be achieved by shooting up towards the woodland canopy with light coming through between the leaves and branches of distant trees, or simply light reflecting off shiny or wet leaves in the background. The smaller the aperture you use, the smaller and more hexagonal the bokeh shapes will become, so stick to a wide aperture for a more natural effect. When shooting towards a bright background the fungi itself is likely to appear quite dark or as a silhouette, which can be quite effective, especially during the ‘blue hour’ around dawn and dusk. However, if you want to see detail in the fungi you may need to use reflectors or a small amount of artificial illumination to achieve a balanced lighting effect.