Toadstools at Hanningfield

Last week after the 'Beyond The Basics' photography workshop at Hanningfield Reservoir, I stayed out for 15 minutes of shooting, because there were a few nice-looking toadstools on the log piles in the woods.  I was joined by one of the workshop participants, Sean (@Schennessy), who very kindly held the reflector for this shot. :-)

After a couple of false starts, I found this group of three toadstools nicely intertwined, and I used the reflector not to add more light, but to shield the background (the end of one of the logs) and darken it to near black.  This reduced the distractions and allowed the subject itself to stand out more.  You can see a comparison image taken without the reflector below, and a quick phone snapshot of the set-up below that.

Pentax K-5, Pentax D-FA 100mm F2.8 Macro WR lens @ f/9.5, 4s, ISO80, tripod, reflector.

Pentax K-5, Pentax D-FA 100mm F2.8 Macro WR lens @ f/9.5, 4s, ISO80, tripod, no reflector.

HTC Thing, Tiny Little Lens, Some Fraction Of A Second, ISOSomething, handheld.

It's definitely toadstool time, so get out there and see what you can find!