Photographing mushrooms in your own local rain shower

Monday 6 November 2023, 20:02 by Nando Harmsen | 4,261 views | 10 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

Photographing mushrooms is fun. If you want more than a simple photo, you need to get creative. Using flash is possible, especially in your own local rain shower.

Photographing in the rain is (almost) never fun. But it can produce really beautiful results, especially if you use flash as well. Add flash from the right angle, and the drops become beautifully visible. It is a type of strobist photography

A normal photo of mushrooms is nice, but sometimes you want a bit more.
You can do this with mushrooms too. A flash does not just make the raindrops visible. You can also create a beautiful rim of light around the edge of the mushroom. In portrait photography, this is called a rim light, or hair light in English.

However, putting a flash and all your expensive equipment out in the rain is rarely a good idea. Fortunately, there is another way, by taking your own local rain shower with you. In other words, bring a plant sprayer.

Find a mushroom that can be photographed nicely. Put your camera on a tripod, preferably from a low viewpoint for the best effect. Make sure you have a speedlight that can be triggered remotely with a transmitter.

If you do not have one, transmitters and receivers are often available as separate accessories. Modern speedlights often have a receiver built in, though. You then only need a transmitter.

Nando screencapture photographing mushroom 1

Camera on a tripod, flash added, and your photo already looks completely different. The next step is to add water.
Set your camera's exposure for the surroundings. Preferably 1 or 2 stops darker. Set your camera to manual, as you are using flash. This ensures that the ambient light always stays the same. Place the flash on the ground at an angle behind the mushroom, so it does not appear in the frame.

Nando white balance underexposed mushroom photo

Always set the exposure without flash first. That is the basis. Then add the flash. In this case, the photo is 2 stops underexposed.
Take some test photos without flash, then add the flash. Check whether the exposure and direction of the light are right. If necessary, place the flash somewhere slightly different. Keep going until you are happy with it. Then get the plant sprayer.

Nando screencapture photographing mushroom 2

Once everything is set up, it is time to get the plant sprayer.
It is useful to use a remote control or cable release. This lets you take a photo from a distance while spraying water over the mushroom with the plant sprayer. It will never go right in one attempt, so take plenty of photos while creating your own rain shower.

The end result is a photo with water droplets, as if you had photographed mushrooms in the rain.
Make sure you use a tea towel to protect your flash. That is a good idea. Try all kinds of angles, and vary the way and amount of water. Take your time. Good luck.

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About the author

Nando Harmsen has been photographing for more than 40 years. He specialises in wedding photography and landscape photography. Nando also gives talks, workshops, masterclasses and photo trips, and regularly reviews new and interesting equipment.

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10 comments

Donald Willemsen wrote on Tuesday 7 November 2023 at 10:15 | reply
@Nando, this is a great tutorial. I think the final photo turned out very nicely. I also find the explanation in the tutorial very clear and well explained.
Translated from Dutch.

eddy moens wrote on Tuesday 7 November 2023 at 11:48 | reply
hey Nando .. that is indeed a great simple tutorial on photographing mushrooms... but a little question .. that flash seems really interesting to me but can you or could you also use it for interior photography .. if so .. which flash is that and where can you get it .. because as far as I could see it seems to me that you also photograph with Canon ... right ?
already thanks for the info Nando ...
Translated from Dutch.

Nando wrote on Tuesday 7 November 2023 at 13:21 | reply
This is simply a reportage flash, nothing more and nothing less. Any reportage flash with a rotating flash head is usable. Both for this kind of photography and for interior photography. Although the latter kind of photography is a challenge with a single flash.
The one I use is a Profoto A1 flash. That is a very expensive choice, but there are also flashes from Canon themselves (also reasonably pricey), or from, for example, Godox (and a handful of other brands), which are a lot cheaper.
Translated from Dutch.

Paul eos wrote on Tuesday 7 November 2023 at 13:45 | reply
Very interesting Nando, I’m going to get started on that too.
As for interior photography, you could perhaps also use small flash umbrellas. I have a small Canon ST-E10 transmitter on my R6 mk II (without batteries but it only works on Canon’s new hot shoe) and a couple of Canon 430EXIII-RT flashes, and with the tips in Elja Trum’s Flash Bible I can do strobism pretty much anywhere. It’s just an idea, you know.
Translated from Dutch.

Nando wrote on Tuesday 7 November 2023 at 14:10 | reply
Interior photography with a flash is tricky, since it usually involves large spaces. Light intensity decreases very quickly over distance.
In Michel Buijs's course on real estate photography, you can clearly see how on-camera flash can be used. But whether that works well in all situations... I don't think so.
Translated from Dutch.

Paul eos wrote on Tuesday 7 November 2023 at 16:39 | reply
Thanks for the info Nando, I have no experience with interiors. It was just an idea.
Translated from Dutch.

Dedeyne Chris wrote on Wednesday 8 November 2023 at 08:52 | reply
a challenge to try for yourself sometime. As soon as the weather allows it, I would like to test this out.
Translated from Dutch.

Marc Lagrange wrote on Wednesday 8 November 2023 at 20:54 | reply
Hello , it worked for me . Thx Nando
Translated from Dutch.

P Liebe wrote on Thursday 9 November 2023 at 11:38 | reply
Hello Nando. In your explanation about the mushroom photo,s you mention that you can also use a wireless shutter release. But if I put this on the camera's hotshoe I can no longer place a trigger on it to control the flash. Do you know what to do?

Kind regards. Peter Liebe
Translated from Dutch.

Nando wrote on Thursday 9 November 2023 at 16:15 | reply
Does the wireless trigger use any contacts in the hot shoe? Or is that only to mount the trigger on the camera? In the latter case, you don't need to put your trigger on the hot shoe. Just let it hang next to the camera.
In the first case, you can't use the remote control then. The wireless triggering of the flash is more important.
Translated from Dutch.

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