Tutorial: Mushroom Light Painting Photography - Using Lightroom and Photoshop.
Light painting is an art-form within the photography techniques that allows you to create stunning and imaginative images using light sources. In this tutorial, I’ll explore how to capture the magic of mushrooms through light painting photography. Mushrooms, with their unique shapes and textures, make excellent subjects for this creative and experimental form of photography.
Light-painted little Mushrooms in a forest in The Netherlands
Equipment Needed:
Camera: A DSLR or mirrorless camera with manual settings is ideal for this technique.
I use a CANON 5D Mark III & CANON R EOS
Tripod: A stable tripod is essential for long exposures.
My recommendation is to get a tripod without the middle column so you can get super low
Macro Lenses or Zoom lens.
This will help to create both blurry Bokey effects as well as razor sharp focus of your mushrooms.
Remote Shutter Release: This helps reduce camera shake during long exposures.
Or use the 2 second timer on your camera.
Flashlight or Light Source: You can use a flashlight, LED torch, or any other small, portable light source.
Think of different lightsources to add even more special effects to your shot like for example christmas LED light strings to create little lights in the forest.
Setting Up Your Shot
Now this may take some trial and error (like most things do) so take enough time to explore the correct position and composition of your shot. I like to have a bokeh background to enhance the magic in the images.
Location:
Find a suitable location with minimal light from the sun - look for the shadows. and create a backdrop of the forest opening with less light. A forest, garden, or any area with mushrooms will work well.
Camera Settings:
Set your camera to Manual (M) mode.
Use a ISO value that ranges from 200-500. Lightroom or Photoshop has no problem editing your images on the correct values to create razor sharp images with no noice.
Choose a wide aperture (e.g., f/2.8-4) to let in as much light as possible, but also to create the right Bokeh effect.
Start by shooting frame by frame, working in the right patern towards your final goal.
Composition:
Frame your shot with the mushrooms as your primary subject. Consider the surrounding environment for added context or interest.
Focus:
Switch your lens to manual focus mode and carefully focus on the mushrooms. It's crucial to get this right for sharp images. When you do this, create in your mind the layers of sharpness so you can later add them as layers in Photoshop.
Light Painting Techniques
Now, let's get into the heart of light painting:
Camera Setup:
Attach your camera to the tripod and frame the shot.
Use the remote shutter release to avoid touching the camera during exposure.
Initial Exposure:
Take a test shot with the ambient light to determine your composition and focus. Adjust your camera settings if needed. This is actually very crucial for the editing proces later on. So, first off all, create let’s say 5-10 images where you focus on the different layers of the subject (mushroom) to get an even focus of all the parts of the mushroom(s) so Photoshop can auto-blend your images perfectly. (it’s harder than you think)
Darken the Scene:
Make sure that no hard sunlight is hitting your mushrooms.
Light Source:
Hold your light source (flashlight or torch) on top of your mushroom. I like to not have the hard light shine on the external parts of the subject that you can see, but rather have the light shine through the shell of the mushroom. Evidently this will not be possible if you have let’s say a thick Bolete that doesn’t let light shine through. Then you can opt for backlight.
Painting the Mushrooms:
During the long exposure, "paint" the mushrooms with the light source. Move the light around them in a creative way. Experiment with different angles, intensities, and movements to achieve the desired effect. You will get the best results using a lightsource such as a penlight that has a dimmer and orange/yellow light as to the hard white light most used in LED headlights and other flashlights.
PRO TIP! When painting the mushrooms with your lightsource and pressing the shutter button, be sure that the focus of the images is always on the point you are going to do the lightpainting and will later use in Photoshop as your layer of that specific light - Why? Because if that part of your lightpainting is out of focus, you can’t use it in Photoshop afterwards. When you will try and brush this layer into the base layer, you will now start brushing in a un-focused part, and that, we don’t wan’t.
Foreground and Background:
If desired, paint the foreground and background to add depth and atmosphere to your shot. For example, use Christmas light to enhance that magical fairytale feeling of the woods.
Review and Repeat:
After the exposure ends, review your shot on the camera's LCD. If necessary, make adjustments and repeat the process until you achieve the desired result. As you are laying on the forest floor, know that this proces is time-consuming, so use covering to isolate your body and don’t get wet.
Tips for Mushroom Light Painting
Experiment: Light painting is all about experimentation. Try different light sources, colors, and techniques to create unique effects.
Patience: It may take several attempts to get the perfect shot, so be patient and persistent.
Sturdy Tripod: Ensure your tripod is stable and won't move during the long exposure.
Weather Conditions: Consider the weather conditions. Overcast nights can provide diffused light for a softer look, while clear nights offer sharper contrasts.
Post-Processing: After capturing your images, you can enhance them further in post-processing software like Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom. More about that below!
Where some covering clothes - mosquitos will like your skin
Light painting photography is a creative and rewarding technique that allows you to transform ordinary scenes into extraordinary works of art. With mushrooms as your subject, you can explore the enchanting world of fungi and bring it to life through your camera lens. So, grab your gear, head into the night, and let your imagination shine with mushroom light painting photography!
Editing the shots
Now that we have captured all those magical shots, I want to help you get started editing them.
Basically it excists of a couple of basic steps you can repeat for every composition you made.
Import files to Lightroom and do your basic edits on the images that you did without the lightpainting
After you syncronized this batch of images, open them as layers into Photoshop, but also select the lightpainted images you want to use
Get a coffee or tea, as this may take a moment
Now select all layers and auto allign them with the auto allign function in Photoshop.
Select only the layers that you wish to use for stacking - be sure they have the right order and all the parts that should be in full-focus. Now select the Auto-blend mode in Photoshop.
Take another sip of your coffee
Great, now finally it’s time where the magic in your head is ready to be seen on your screen! Incredible.
Firstly you need to make a smart object of the stacked images.
Then drag that images beneath the layer of light you want to brush into your stacked images. Remember when I gave you that PRO TIP? Now you will see why this is important. As you are going to brush the light-painted parts into the stacked image, you don’t want that part to be out of focus.
Now continue this proces from top to bottom until you have reached the lowest layer and view all the layers.
You will now have the full result of your images, and it could like something like this.
Mushrooms without Lightpainting
You don’t always need to lightpaint your mushrooms. And not even always need a macro or telelens to create really interesting images of mushrooms. These porcelain mushrooms are growing on dead trees such as birch trees.
These Porcelain Mushrooms have a thin head making them really great for light painting. This log in the woods was the perfect place for the Fungi to grow. Weeks before I already took photo’s of similar places mushrooms, but I didn’t have my gear with me. Now, weeks later, on a similar spot, a group of these mushrooms came to life and gave me the perfect opportunity to again play with the lights and the backdrop of the forest ceiling.
Notice how razor sharp the mushroom details are.
Such as this lush green image of a triple of mushrooms without light painting, but with focus stacking - again to create a perfect field of depth.
Use some Christmas lights in the background to enhance that feeling of being in a fairytale forest.
I hope you are well inspired to get out there when mushroom season is at it’s peak. For questions and/or recommendations, please comment below.
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