The 420 Fotographer Collective: Advanced Cannabis Photography

looking good age i like that shot with the shadow on the wall cool i shot these m2 buds this morning!
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Wow Scrog great shots!!!

I love my dog, great breed, my first "Big Dog." This is Maverick aka, Mavy McMavenstein!

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Tough to get action pics, maybe I'll have my daughter throw the ball for me.
 
Love animals. They're my favourite kind of person. Here's one of my cats. Breed: Ocicat. A breed that's a cat but behaving more like a mixture of cat/dog. Very dedicated to their humans. Not the best photo. The focus should have been on his face. Never use autofocus on cats :)

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i just wanted to add a thank you to urban achiever for starting this thread i love taking photos of these girls and I'm always ready to learn something new and this will be a good place to learn it thanks ua!:cheesygrinsmiley:

I appreciate that ilikemsticky, I think we all love taking pictures of these girls, and its another reason I felt the need to create this thread. It had been mentioned a few times before that I should make something. But I know I am only a small contributor. There are a lot of folks who contribute to the excellent photos coming out of 420 grows. Lots of folks that can teach the basics or show more advanced techniques. Now we have a place to do it. Together.

Thanks again for joining us and providing that bio and introduction.

Wow everyone, really loving the photos, incredible pet shots. I have one of my cat but its been on the Chive and floating around the internet so I will keep it to myself for now. But we love our pets and it shows with our photography. Well done. Nice breakfast nugs sticky lol, looks delicious
 
That is a challenge. I have a lot of better photos, but they're already floating around the internet. We have to be careful in here. I am still in a country where growing is considered a serious offence and if not cautious, I could end up several years in prison.

A few tips on photography and security. Make sure there are no details in the photos that can be used to identify you. It is very easy to overlook something. It can be a product from a shop revealing which part of the world you're in or worse, a bill with your name and address on it or anything else that's easy to identify. Then you have the matter of reflective surfaces. Check those to see if your face is on the photo. The same applies to eyes. You can be identified from the reflection of your face in someone's eyes. A pet photo could doom you forever if you forget to check for the small details. The following text is from my thread "Growing safety - Tips & Tricks on how to avoid getting caught" - I feel this needs to be included in a thread about the special nature of the kind of photography we do:

I often censor my photos. Especially reflective surfaces are pixeled out from many of my photos I post online. The reasons for this are quite simple - Please read the following article

Reflected hidden faces in photographs revealed in pupil

What do your Instagram and Facebook photos reveal?

[+]
Corneal-reflections.png
Zooming in on the pupil of a subject’s eye reveals hidden bystanders (credit: Rob Jenkins)


The pupil* of the eye in a photograph of a face can be mined for hidden information, such as reflected faces of the photographer and bystanders, according to research led by Dr.
Rob Jenkins
, of the Department of Psychology at the
University of York
and published in PLOS ONE (open access).
The researchers say that in crimes in which the victims are photographed, such as hostage taking or child sex abuse, reflections in the eyes of the photographic subject could help to identify perpetrators. Images of people retrieved from cameras seized as evidence during criminal investigations could be used to piece together networks of associates or to link individuals to particular locations.


By zooming in on high-resolution passport-style photographs, Jenkins and co-researcher Christie Kerr of the School of Psychology, University of Glasgow were able to recover bystander images that could be identified accurately by observers, despite their low resolution.
Lineup-style array of reflected images from photographs for spontaneous recognition task in experiment. All participants were familiar with the face of the psychologist and unfamiliar with the faces of the bystanders. Correct naming of the familiar face was frequent (hits 90%), and mistaken identification of the unfamiliar faces was infrequent (false positives 10%)

To establish whether these bystanders could be identified from the reflection images, the researchers presented them as stimuli in a face-matching task. Observers who were unfamiliar with the bystanders’ faces performed at 71 per cent accuracy, while participants who were familiar with the faces performed at 84 per cent accuracy. In a test of spontaneous recognition, observers could reliably name a familiar face from an eye reflection image.
“The pupil of the eye is like a black mirror,” said Jenkins. “To enhance the image, you have to zoom in and adjust the contrast. A face image that is recovered from a reflection in the subject’s eye is about 30,000 times smaller than the subject’s face.” In the research, the whole-face area for the reflected bystanders was 322 pixels on average.


Forensics implications

You probably recognize this well-known person, even though his face in this image measures only 16 pixels wide × 20 pixels high. (look at my personal remarks regarding this photo below this article - DeVille)

High-resolution face photographs may also contain unexpected information about the environment of the photographic subject, including the appearance of the immediate surroundings, Jenkins explained to KurzweilAI.
“In the context of criminal investigations, this could be used to piece together networks of associates, or to link individuals to particular locations. This may be especially important when for categories of crime in which perpetrators photograph their victims. Reflections in the victims eyes could reveal the identity of the photographer.
“Also, around 40 million photographs per day are uploaded to Instagram alone, he pointed out. “Faces are among the most frequently photographed objects. Our study serves as a reminder to be careful what you upload. Eyes in the photographs could reveal where you were and who you were with.”
Although Jenkins did the study with a high-resolution (39 megapixels) Hasselblad camera, face images retrieved from eye reflections need not be of high quality in order to be identifiable, he said. “Obtaining optimal viewers — those who are familiar with the faces concerned — may be more important than obtaining optimal images.”
In addition, “in accordance with Hendy’s Law (a derivative of Moore’s Law), pixel count per dollar for digital cameras has been doubling approximately every twelve months. This trajectory implies that mobile phones could soon carry >39 megapixel cameras routinely.”
It would be interesting to see what hidden information is buried in law-enforcement (and other) photo archives — some of which could even help exculpate innocent persons.


Abstract of PLOS ONE paper
Criminal investigations often use photographic evidence to identify suspects. Here we combined robust face perception and high-resolution photography to mine face photographs for hidden information. By zooming in on high-resolution face photographs, we were able to recover images of unseen bystanders from reflections in the subjects’ eyes. To establish whether these bystanders could be identified from the reflection images, we presented them as stimuli in a face matching task (Experiment 1). Accuracy in the face matching task was well above chance (50%), despite the unpromising source of the stimuli. Participants who were unfamiliar with the bystanders’ faces (n = 16) performed at 71% accuracy [t(15) = 7.64, p<.0001, d = 1.91], and participants who were familiar with the faces (n = 16) performed at 84% accuracy [t(15) = 11.15, p<.0001, d = 2.79]. In a test of spontaneous recognition (Experiment 2), observers could reliably name a familiar face from an eye reflection image. For crimes in which the victims are photographed (e.g., hostage taking, child sex abuse), reflections in the eyes of the photographic subject could help to identify perpetrators.
references:







* I have some remarks about the Obama photo. That's a clear weakness of this study. You see - They used a very famous photo of a very famous person. However - If they used a non famous photo of the same person the chances would be considerably smaller for you to be able to identify this person after being pixelated like that. They probably did it to illustrate their point, but it's not very scientific to mislead the reader like this. I just felt I had to say that - DeVille

I appreciate that ilikemsticky, I think we all love taking pictures of these girls, and its another reason I felt the need to create this thread. It had been mentioned a few times before that I should make something. But I know I am only a small contributor. There are a lot of folks who contribute to the excellent photos coming out of 420 grows. Lots of folks that can teach the basics or show more advanced techniques. Now we have a place to do it. Together.

Thanks again for joining us and providing that bio and introduction.

Wow everyone, really loving the photos, incredible pet shots. I have one of my cat but its been on the Chive and floatimg around the internet so I will keep it to myself for now. But we love our pets and it shows with our photography. Well done. Nice breakfast nugs sticky lol, looks delicious
 
Beautiful moon photo @
Scrogdawg

Taking photo's of the moon is actually more difficult than most people would think. I love moon photo's where you can see clouds as well, but it's almost impossible to get both the clouds and the moon clear at the same time. What kind of lense did you use for this shot?
 
gosh,, beauty photos is right,, so easy to spot a picture taken with care and attention. stand out images folks

i am not one for bios or details, personal wise, but love to share my workings when i can,, so i trust i can contribute the odd and maybe not so odd picture for y'all to peruse

i know the posting of un marijuana related items has been an extreme issue in the past but i think i read that the rules have been relaxed, but i bet there is still rules of some kind

i have been great at breaking these rules in the past,, guess i will find out the hard way

oh, btw,, some kick ass gear there as well,, i miss my gear, sorta,, got different gear now

photography was my passion for quite a few years, quite a few years ago,, gotta see what i can dig up,, most not digitized

this thread gonna inspire me to shoot up a bit more,, cheers

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my cats are pretty passionate as well,, this is a cat pic only, not a feline photograph, i just had to show them to all the other furry friends out there

cheers friends,,

oh, and you look real close,, you can see me in the cats pupil,, i am waving atcha
 
Beautiful moon photo @
Scrogdawg

Taking photo's of the moon is actually more difficult than most people would think. I love moon photo's where you can see clouds as well, but it's almost impossible to get both the clouds and the moon clear at the same time. What kind of lense did you use for this shot?

I used a Canon 100-400mm F4 "L" (the lens with the telescopic slide for zoom) on a EOS 1D MkII N body . It was mounted on a tripod with a remote trigger. I think I shot several frames between 1/2 second and 3 second exposures then processed the best one of the bunch.

Heres another moon shot I got at about 9:30 one morning out in the country. The exif info is stamped on the photo.
This one I used my Canon 500mm F4 "L" IS USM with a 1.4 extender to get 700mm.
.
moon2b.jpg
 
Setting a Custom White Balance in a Canon DSLR using a grey card.

Step 1. Have a Canon DSLR. Also a grey card.

Step 2. Take a photo of the grey card IN the light you will be shooting pictures. Fill most of the frame with the card to make it easy. Here is an example. Also note the photo in the camera display is a different shade of grey than the one in my hand. These are the same card under two different lights.

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Step 3. Go into your menu. Find Custom White Balance.
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Step 4. Choose the grey card photo to set the white balance.
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Step 5. Now go to your White Balance menu, and choose the Custom White Balance you just created. Now the camera knows that yes, its not normal light, but “i will see what I can do”.
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Here is the in camera result. You can also accomplish this in software. Open the grey card photo in your editing software. Find Custom White Balance. You can create a custom white balance preset or template to apply to every blurple picture with the touch of a button.


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Cheers!

Here is the result of the white balance in the final image.
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This is a thread about photography, not just cannabis. So I think we're okay. Nice meow meow .
 
good dawgy:high-five:
 
I used a Canon 100-400mm F4 "L" (the lens with the telescopic slide for zoom) on a EOS 1D MkII N body . It was mounted on a tripod with a remote trigger. I think I shot several frames between 1/2 second and 3 second exposures then processed the best one of the bunch.

Heres another moon shot I got at about 9:30 one morning out in the country. The exif info is stamped on the photo.
This one I used my Canon 500mm F4 "L" IS USM with a 1.4 extender to get 700mm.
.
moon2b.jpg

Yeah taking photos of the moon will test you lol. Thats a great shot, 700mm lol, crazy zoom. Even on those “large moon” nights the distance is deceptive. Its a long ways away.
 
The 420 Fotographer Collective - Member Bio

Username:








Grow method and strains:









Camera, Lenses and Gear:









Experience level and photography background:









What is your style? (portrait, journal, macro, outdoor, instructional, various)







Favourite lens or type of shot:







If you could give 1 tip for new photographers:








Other introductory options:

Please share 1 of you favourite photos and explain why it works so well for you. What equipment did you use?

Please share 1 technique you use in a step by step how-to.

Choose a few of your favourite photos and share them.

Talk about a piece of your equipment you can't live without.

Share the link to other photography related content you have created.



Welcome!

Username: (Hey I can get at least one question right!!) Van Stank

Grow Method and strains: I grow in my homemade organic soil and use water and ACT only for feeding. As for strains I only have Nukeheads going now but I just started a perpetual that will include endless strains.

Camera, Lenses, aand Gear: I have a Nikon D7100 and the two lenses that came with it, the smaller one and the 50-300 mm zoom lens. Ms Stank also just picked up a Nikkor Macro 40mm lens. I also have a tripod and she picked up a couple 'filters' (though I don't know what they do). I also use my Samsung Galaxy S7 as well.

Experience level: Complete novice with DSLR cameras, decent experience with scenery pictures with point and shoot type cameras.

What is my style? LOL....hell if I know. I tend to take outdoor pictures more often than anything else besides my plants. I would like to learn a bit of everything and figure out what I actually like. I know it will likely involve either my cannabis plants or out door type shots.

Favorite lens or type shot: On the lenses.....hell if I know. I am playing around a little with my new Macro lens but I don't know enough to know how to use it. I can't seem

1 Tip for a beginner: Take a class LOL!!


As for a favorite picture.......well I have dig through a bunch of pics I have and see what i can find. Also many of pictures are in RAW format (whatever that means) so I have that obstacle to deal with.
 
There is plenty of expertise in here, so don't be afraid to ask questions. You'll get the hang on your dlsr. There is a huge "class" difference in photo's taken with a real mirrored camera and the others and you'll learn how to use your camera in no time at all.

Can you tell me a little bit about the filters? What are they called?

QUOTE=Van Stank;3851382]Username: (Hey I can get at least one question right!!) Van Stank

Grow Method and strains: I grow in my homemade organic soil and use water and ACT only for feeding. As for strains I only have Nukeheads going now but I just started a perpetual that will include endless strains.

Camera, Lenses, aand Gear: I have a Nikon D7100 and the two lenses that came with it, the smaller one and the 50-300 mm zoom lens. Ms Stank also just picked up a Nikkor Macro 40mm lens. I also have a tripod and she picked up a couple 'filters' (though I don't know what they do). I also use my Samsung Galaxy S7 as well.

Experience level: Complete novice with DSLR cameras, decent experience with scenery pictures with point and shoot type cameras.

What is my style? LOL....hell if I know. I tend to take outdoor pictures more often than anything else besides my plants. I would like to learn a bit of everything and figure out what I actually like. I know it will likely involve either my cannabis plants or out door type shots.

Favorite lens or type shot: On the lenses.....hell if I know. I am playing around a little with my new Macro lens but I don't know enough to know how to use it. I can't seem

1 Tip for a beginner: Take a class LOL!!


As for a favorite picture.......well I have dig through a bunch of pics I have and see what i can find. Also many of pictures are in RAW format (whatever that means) so I have that obstacle to deal with.[/QUOTE]
 
Grow method and strains: I grow year round on the coast of Maine in an active solar heated greenhouse I built. I prefer using soil using worm castings from my worm farm and I usually mix it 50/50 with Pro-mix. I use 3/7/20/25 gallon fabric pots. I grow White Widow, CB Dream, Northern Lights (NL) , NL & Big Bud Auto, Low Ryder Auto, CB Dutch Treat. We make most of our crop into soaps, salves, oils, and give the rest away to friends.


Camera, Lenses and Gear: Canon 20D. 24-105mmL lens.

Experience level and photography background: Shooting for 10+ years for personal.

What is your style? (portrait, journal, macro, outdoor, instructional, various) Mostly shooting the beautiful things surrounding me...

Favourite lens or type of shot: never took a bad shot of my kids...

If you could give 2 tips for new photographers: Nothing beats sunlight. Invest in a simple mono/tripod.

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A solar powered greenhouse huh. I am going to have to swing by your journal....you aren't too far up the road from me (Massachusetts) and would love to learn what you did for your greenhouse.
 
The Raw format is a uncompressed format. As long as the images are in that format, you can change them a lot in post processing. The kind of freedom you have to edit the photos and modify all the settings are enormous with the raw format compared to a compressed format like for example jpeg.
 
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This question is for any photo newb's reading along. What would you do differently if this is what you see in your camera, before you take the picture?

I would suggest some sort of back lighting to get a bit of lightness back there. I see dark leaves transitioning into a darker background. I would imagine the contrast between the leaves and a lighter background would look better. Other than that....no idea. If I had any editing softwear, perhaps crop the left and right sides in just a bit perhaps.
 
Before I get to the comments, responses and educational portion of my post allow me to preface by saying I have a sense of humor, but that can be lost on the inter webs... Also, let me mention I want to help everybody including myself learn and grow therefore I humbly admit although i do have quite a base of knowledge to draw from I don't know everything and know I still have much to learn, not only as a photographer but as citizen of earth as well. I quote Rufus, "Be Excellent to Each Other!"



The literal translation of Photography is, "Drawing with Light." Without subtle shadows and darks photos would just be white squares. Variance in light allows us to perceive tones, shades, & colors. The dominant "effect" in this picture is vignetting. That is what makes the outside of the image dark and the subject light. Also, keep in mind my monitor is not calibrated that same as yours so you may not be seeing the image the same way I do on my computer, phone, tablet, etc.

Can I be a noob? First I would cut back on the nitrogen because that plant is very dark green. Then I'd probably move the fan out of the background and set a slower shutter speed. Or just take the shot and goof around with it in PS to increase the exposure, erase the fan, mess with the contrast, and bump the vibrancy. Is that cheating? :cheesygrinsmiley:

The nitrogen issues has been mentioned to me before, but I'll honestly tell you this, if my plants aren't happy they've got a funny way of showing it. The fan I left in on purpose and placed it off center in the corner intentionally, stylistic choice. Not sure why you'd set a longer exposure unless you're leaning toward the more light option Tunkers mentioned. Because this shot was handheld I would adjust the aperture instead. Opening up 1 or 2/3 stop (aperture) would increase the lighting, and lessen the depth of field. The lighting is an easy fix in post. Basic photo processing is key any photography, without it pictures are flat and flimsy. I like sharp and crisp images.

Photoshop is not cheating and neither is light room or any other software system you may use. I can usually tell when people go to far with their processing, it's a fine line. I want my images to look realistic not fantasy like, I can get crazy with photoshop and blow the yellows out and turn the plant blue but that's not realistic although it would prolly look pretty cool!



Nothing wrong with that answer, but a little more explanation could be helpful. All good!



It's cool man, my question and the specific photograph was to get people thinking about composition and making small, subtle adjustments in order to make their pictures better. There's a great app called SnapSeed for iPhone. It could really help you out. It's not too expensive and has a lot of cool tools. I've found that great photographs usually take a lot of work. Rarely are they birthed from the camera ready for presentation (sarcasm)...



That's funny!!!! And... technically if you change the photo more than 10% (how do you quantify that?) then it's yours. A little copyright law for you as well!

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Alright Boys and Girls now for the lesson.

Here is the raw image from the camera, no editing.

Unedited.jpg


This second image is cropped.

Cropped8.jpg


Here is the third image with the contrast adjusted.

Contrast.jpg


Now the next step, adjusting the highlights and whites.

Highlights_Whites.jpg


Now the Blacks and the Shadows.

Shadows_Blacks.jpg


Now one using a few final adjustments.

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And now the Final Composition.


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This post is getting lengthy and I'm sorry for taking up so much space. That being said, I was hoping somebody would point out some basic compositional changes. Aside from the fan (again, artistic latitude) I was hoping for mention of the leaf tips going straight out of frame. There are compositional elements that travel together across all two dimensional forms of art. They may not always be called the same however. For instance, painters use The Golden Triangle when they compose, but remember they are sketching or drawing before they are painting. As photographers we don't always get the perfect subject, facing just the right way, etc. As photographers we employ the Rule of Thirds and a few other elements to help us create the perfect composition.

These Five Basic Rules of a Photographic Composition are in no particular order.

1. Rule of Thirds
2. Horizontal or Vertical
3. Leading Line
4. Repetition of Form
5. Balance.

I've always believed if you can utilize at least 3 of them in a picture you're headed in the right direction.

Question: In the final photograph can you identify any or all of the 5 techniques listed above?

Ok, I think I just entered into a Latin class. LOL. I am going to skip down to the bottom and the '5 rules'. The only one I am familiar with is the "thirds". Can you please start with a simple explanation of what the other 4 things are in a way a retarded Marine....errr...I mean retired Marine can understand. I don't know what Horizontal or Vertical means as it pertains to the rule. Same for the follow 3 rules.

I am sure that I could probably google the rules and try to learn it...but I generally do better with interpretations of the rule in someone else's breakdown (think of 10k foot view vs 100 foot view.........I like to get an understanding from a higher perspective 'the 10k foot view" and then work my way down into understanding it from a much more technical and detailed version of the 'view' from 100 foot). I hope that made sense

For me, too much technical talk without an explanation just kind of shuts me down, doesn't matter what it is......can be gardening, cooking, photography, or anything else. I just kind of glass over. So I think a basic version of the 5 rules would be a great place for a ignorant newbie to start. And this comment, while in response to Agemon, is open for anyone to share their interpretation of those 5 rules. Thanks in advance!!
 
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