In this post I share behind the scenes my typical set up for styling and photographing culinary mushrooms that form the subject of my Mushroom Ocean Exhibition, showing 13-20 Nov at That Plant Shop Balmain as part of Head On Photo Festival Open Program 2025. These mushroom photos are also part of my ongoing sustainable food art Mushrooms Collection on Shutterstock. My photo, Pink Oyster Mushrooms Close up was a Finalist in the World Food Photography Awards 2025 and Pink Oyster Waves Series was Art Commended in Australasia’s Top Emerging Photographers 2025. Here I share my tips and tricks to make culinary mushrooms look their best for the camera and how I have photographed them for these projects through taking you with me behind the scenes on an actual shoot for a Shutterstock Pink Oyster Mushrooms Mini Collection.
Photographing Fresh Living Culinary Mushrooms
I use fresh homegrown culinary mushrooms for all my shoots. I grow the mushrooms from grow box kits in my spare half bathroom and we eat the mushrooms as a sustainable foodway which we started in our household during Lockdown, but I have continued as a way of creating amazing food art and having delicious culinary mushrooms as well. Fresh homegrown mushrooms still attached to the grow block are serenely perfect – no damage – fresh as you can possibly get – these are the best for the very fine detail of macro photography which picks up all the beautiful delicate and rich colours and textures of the mushrooms, as well as any flaws.
Quick Tips for Growing Mushrooms at Home
Growing mushrooms at home is easy – you can use commercially available grow boxes with a compost block that the mushrooms grow on – all you need to do is remember to water them with a misting of water and keep an eye out for when they are ready to be harvested, and eat them of course – but I really recommend photographing them first!
Growing Pink Oyster Mushrooms at Home: Behind the Scenes Instax Diary
Follow along with my Instax Behind the Scenes Diary below to see how I grow Pink Oyster Mushrooms at home over 7 days.
Growing Shiitake Mushrooms at Home
If you are adventurous I suggest trying Shiitake Mushrooms as these need to have a water bath around their compost block that sits on a little raised island in the centre – they are a bit more work but well worth it for the amazing flavour enhancing properties they have – due to their umami properties they can enhance other flavours making the chocolate notes in Whiskey come to the fore – see my post on Umami Hot Whiskey Toddy.
Food Styling Props, Set & Lighting Design
To style culinary mushrooms for photography I use velvet to drape the grow box of the mushrooms if they are still attached to the compost block or otherwise to cushion the harvested fruiting in a wooden drawer or on a hand painted wooden background or on a chair. Otherwise, I have a favourite vintage bentwood chair that I like to use for photos, and I sit the mushrooms on the chair like for a portrait and drape them in the velvet to get some lovely folds and remove the grow box and compost from sight – isolating the subject for the camera. I hold the velvet in place with some pins that I simply attach to the folds of velvet or into the box. Sometimes I will raise the grow box up a bit with another cardboard box like a shoebox. To create a background behind the chair I either use a hand painted canvas background or a hand painted wooden background in a colour that matches or contrasts with the mushrooms.
My Set Design & Lighting Set Up Behind the Scenes Instax Diary
Follow along with my Instax Behind the Scenes Diary of how I designed the set and lighting set up for this shoot, my two muses and my dinner! You can see my camera angles for food portraits, close up and flat lay shots, my single LED light and sunlight positioned to the left of the set (2 balloon lights are for video) and my hand painted grey canvas backdrop, as well as my vintage bentwood chair and black velvet.
My Lighting Set Up: Natural Light + LED Lights
When I first started taking food photos I worked exclusively with natural light as that was all I had – but as I have become more involved with projects and with shooting videos I have started to use LED lights that have the same colour as sunlight and so can be used conjointly. My set up is typically a single LED for shooting mushrooms – but as I had video to shoot as well, I had another 2 LEDs for video lighting. I put a sheet of bubble wrap over my LED to diffuse the light if it feels too hot.
My Photo Process
When I shoot mushrooms I start from eye level like a portrait with the mushrooms sitting on the chair against the backdrop, draped in velvet. From here I move in as close as I can from this angle to get a photo of the texture. Sometimes I like to photograph the texture as a flat lay as it is easier to get further away from the subject and have more of the texture in focus this way – I use the arm on my tripod for this, although I used a very old tripod for a long time that had no arm – the level was also broken so I used my phone level to check the angle. Then I start observing the texture and the light and see what I find interesting – this time I could see the intricate coral like forms when looking down on the mushrooms – this is a new angle for the Pink Oysters, and I think quite interesting because there are textures and smooth surfaces and different gradients in the depth of colour.
From here it was all about the fans I could see beneath the fruiting, so I turned the block over onto the back of the grow box and shot it from underneath to reveal these surfaces that have an extraordinarily rich texture but delicate light pink colour. Finally, I ended up with a detailed shot of the one of the fans which I took a long time over from various angles to hit the sweet spot where the front of this fan is all in focus. Mostly I was coming in from slightly below or from 45 degrees to try to frame all this fan in the camera.
‘Get it right in the camera’
This is another thing I like to do is to fill the frame and to get the shot exactly right in the camera – before you press the shutter check framing, exposure, focus. This comes from my Dad who is a film photographer and would constantly be advising me ‘Get it right in the camera’ – because there is no better way to capture something than to get the shot right and not have to spend hours fixing things in post processing or in the film world just not have anything to show for your efforts.
My Photo Settings & Gear Tips
When I shoot mushrooms and most still life food these are my settings and gear:
- ISO 100, f16, Low Shutter Speed – adjusted to available light
- Macro Lens + polarising filter
- Remote Shutter Release
- Tripod with central arm for flat lays
Editing Tips
When I edit any food photos I use minimal editing as I do not want to drastically change the colour and texture of the food – this would make it look less appealing. I do nudge up the vibrance and saturation slightly and I do make slight colour, texture and clarity adjustments to accentuate colours and textures I find pleasing. My main work with these sorts of photos is removing distractions – dust and fluff somehow find their way into these photos or onto my sensor and I like to remove any of these spots when I am editing. For black velvet I use brushes I have presets in Lightroom to increase the shadows, so this looks more uniform. Sometimes photos come from framing in post processing where you can see a crop will bring out a detail better or remove a distraction.
Sustainable Food Art Practice & Mushroom Ocean Exhibition Details
Fresh seasonal produce is what inspires me to take food photos and growing food at home is a wonderful way to experience food at its’ freshest. What started out as a hobby growing culinary mushrooms to be more sustainable has evolved into a sustainable food art practice. I hope that sharing this sneak peak behind the scenes of how I shoot culinary mushroom photos makes you curious to see more of the amazing textures, forms and colours of sustainable mushroom food art at my Mushroom Ocean Exhibition.
Mushroom Ocean Exhibition is running as part of Head On Photo Festival Open Program, 13-20 November at That Plant Shop, Balmain.
Plan your visit and learn more about Mushroom Ocean Exhibition Details and Head On Photo Festival here on my Events page.
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