So you got your LED lights? Now time to show off those buds!

[Kriaze]

Hello all, I'm not too sure if this is in the right place so please feel free to let me know where I should post it (if at all but I thought it would be helpful) or move it to the right place

Ok so I've been reading a lot of journals by growers that are using LED lights and I noticed that a lot of them post pictures that don't show plants as well as they could due to the nature of LED lighting. If anyone is interested in posting their pics showing the plants (and anything else in the picture) in their natural colours then this is my stoner how to! xD

First of all here's an example of a photograph I've taken today after fitting my new LED lights, it'll kind of give you the idea of what I mean:

As you can see it doesn't really show the plants to their full effect. Plus as you will see later if you are having any difficulties with your plants then people won't really be able to help much as the detail just won't be there for anyone to offer you some well informed advice. So here is a quick and simple way to fix the issue and it doesn't cost much at all.

First you will need what is called a 'grey card'. These can be had dirt cheap from any Photography shop or eBay and Amazon etc. Next you will need 'Lightroom'. Lightroom is actually a Photographers software tool and it used to be very expensive, but nowadays it's offered online for a monthly payment so that's an option, but because of this there are now many older copies on CD/DVD available for sale and they're dirt cheap. Yeah I like dirt cheap, give me dirt cheap anything, weed, beer, sex and I'm a happy man With these two things in your arsenal you have everything that you need (minus camera and PC or phone/tablet) to make those pictures show your plants as intended. Here's how I do it:

You will want to get your grey card in the first photograph that you take. You can either sit it in the area where you will be taking pictures but for me it was easier to get an assistant in (the wife). First camera shot will include this card like so:

After the first shot you will no longer need the card to be in the picture so take it out and continue to take as many shots as you like. So long as all the photographs are taken in the same lighting the fix will be applied to any shots in the sequence. Once the shots are taken go upload them to your PC and open up Lightroom. Import all the pictures that you've taken and switch to the grid view.

Select the photograph that contains the grey card and hit 'Develop' over on the right hand side then select the colour dropper and left click on the grey card in the picture. You will see the colours change to their natural state instantly.

Making sure that all your photographs are selected you can then hit the 'Sync' button down on the bottom right hand side and it will then apply this adjustment to all your selected photographs. Export those pictures to the folder where you would like to save them and after that it's just a case of resizing and uploading to 420magazine! Here are some example pictures that I can show you of a crop that I posted asking for advice on. As you will be able to see it's much easier for people to see symptoms when the plants are the right colour!

If you have any questions please feel free to leave me a message. I'm on here a few times a day and am (supposedly) a professional photographer so I should be able to help with the majority of problems. All the best, peace out!

 

[neon green]

I need a camera like that.... I bet it isn't dirt cheap....

 

[Kriaze]

Hey hello neon green. These cameras aren't cheap but I have to use them to make a living. The principle is exactly the same though for any camera, including a mobile phone camera. All the best

 

[Weaselcracker]

The same process for an hps light I would imagine? A lot of people use phones for photography and posting and skip the middleman/computer. There are probably apps that can compensate too, I've never thought to check beyond trying the built in filter effects in my phone, which don't help.

 

[Kriaze]

Hey Weaselcracker. Sorry I didn't realise that you had posted here but I actually replied to you in my grow journal. The principle is indeed exactly the same and yes there is a mobile version of Lightroom too. I'm not familiar with it though but I would assume that it has the white balance tool included. Here are the links:

Adobe Lightroom CC for iPad on the App Store - IOS

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC - Android Apps on Google Play - Android

Good luck and all the best

 

[Weaselcracker]

Thanks!

 

[neon green]

I was really looking forward to having that app.... But it won't install on sd card and I'm not dropping my iheart radio app off. Poo maybe another day....

 

[Kriaze]

Ah sorry to hear that neon green. I'll ask around and see if anyone knows of an alternate app that will go to SDCard. It won't be for a good few hours yet though as it's 4:40am here. All the best.

 

[neon green]

Nice. I appreciate all the help. Need anything let me know.

 

[Dan Ultra]

I use an app called Enlight for a lot of photo editing. ($3.99 on app store) It has a similar white balance color tool. You just can't apply it to multiple photos. So I have to use a grey card held just out side of the frame area I want and then crop it out. It's a pain so I hardly do it, but it is there.

 

[johnicannased]

Neat trick and nice how to

 

[rillos]

spread the knowledge

 

[tonydavis]

Can I make a correct photo by setting the custom white balance before shoting? Simply using a white paper to set custom white balance, u know... I thought it should work also.

 

[Kriaze]

Hi tonydavis you can do that also so long as your camera supports the custom balance setting. It makes things a lot easier but you do have to trust in your camera's settings as it will only affect the jpeg output and not the RAW file.

This is basically the method I use as part of my post process routine and is pretty much standard across the board for those that need to shoot in RAW for professional or standardised results using any brand or model of DSLR without any influence from the camera itself (for instance Canon are well known for their over saturated skin tones if you were to shoot using the white paper method and jpeg output). Both scenarios will work but for a steady standardised result this is the only way to do it as RAW files are untouched by custom white balance (or any other additional setting for that matter).

I hope this explains it well enough for you and maybe I should have included the other way too for those that prefer that option, but thankfully you have pointed it out

I'm fortunate in that I do Photography as a living as I've loved it all my life, sometimes though you can get set in the standard way of how to do it, when there's actually more ways than one to skin a cat lol. This would be more geared towards setting a steady workflow practice of shoot RAW, Post process, sell the picture. All the best and thank you again for pointing out my omission

 

[Weaselcracker]

Thanks for putting in the work guys.
For my hps lights I've ordered a set of 'LUMii' grow room sunglasses. They were one of the cheapest brands of grow room glasses, which range between $20 and $170 on the site I was looking at. If they work well enough I'm hopeful I can use them to take photos through. I haven't found an iphone app to address the issue for hps. I couldn't find the one Dan mentioned. I suppose (?) almost any photo post processing app could do it (??? ) but I'm too lazy at the moment to do my research on this.
I personally feel photos that are taken under led and hps lights and not corrected, are next to useless. My flowering plants are tied up in scrog screens and I don't have the option of moving them to daylight. If I start a journal I want to be able to show decent photos.

 

[Kriaze]

Hey Weaselcracker, the sunglasses will work just fine as a filter for your camera. I did a review of the Method Seven glasses in my first grow journal and put them in front of the lens to shoot through, they worked a charm but are too small to cover my lens so they're a bit impractical for that use all the time. I looked into Lumi and couldn't find them for LED but they look as though they use bigger lenses which would make them much more useful as a filter. If they're not big enough then you could always look for a cheap blue filter. That should work and you can get them dirt cheap too. As for phone apps I'm not too sure which would do this in post process other than the ones already mentioned. It would be great if you could let us know how the Lumi's work. All the best

 

[speyfly]

Well, my plant is just starting to bud but doing great so far. I'm using the P600 in a 2X4 tent and really like how easy it is to manage the temp.

Just finished week 2 and as you can see they are liking the new light.

 

[Atlien0079]

Nice!!! Good info for us LED growers

 

[Kriaze]

Hey Atlien, I'm happy that it helped. Thank you

 

[Weaselcracker]

Hey Kriaze. I got my Lumii glasses. I'm very happy with them, and they're working fine as an iPhone filter as well.