Below is a collection of freshly picked chanterelle mushrooms from a birch hardwood forest in Nockamixon Township, northern Bucks County PA
These mushrooms were photographed on a black cloth, next to a window using a simple point and shoot camera, an Olympus Tough TG-5 and then processed in Lightroom.
Here is the setup. It’s pretty simple. The two mushrooms in the foreground were not included in the shot, just the mushroom on the left in the second row (closest to the window) and the gaggle of mushrooms in the background.
Comparing a real chanterelle to the Olympus RAW file (ORF) produced by Tough TG-5 in auto white balance mode. The white balance needed to be pushed up to 7000K to bring out the color. The blacks were fudged a bit and the tonal curve made a little steeper to increase the contrast.
Here is the final image exported as a JPEG. The intent of this photos was to get close in and show the color and texture of the mushroom. I love the orange. It makes them easy to find in the forest. Now they just need to be brushed off and sauteed.
