Mushrooms - which one?

#1 - existing light, cloudy under an Eastern Red Cedar. Grass trimmed in front. F/22, 1/6 sec.

#2 - 580-EX II flash off the camera at low angle and to the right to illuminate the stem. F/32, 1/250

40D, F/2.8 100mm macro, propped on some books.

Which do you think is better or less worse?

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The first one is much better lighting. But you need to use very little depth of field. The grass is distracting and needs to be defocused.

I agree. The lighting in the first one is the best, but shooting at f/22 will induce a degree of diffraction and slight "unsharpness". I would consider shooting at about f:11 for this subject.

I prefer the light on the 2nd one, the background grass is not much of a price to pay for the extra texture and detail we can see on the mushroom with the different lighting, its just a bit hot at the front though, try fix that.