Hiya mate
Yes I understand our cousins from across the pond don't quite get our sense of humor yet my Dad lives in LA and when visiting it's so easy to wind his neighbours up and they just don't get it

No offence intended I have some very good friends in LA who are just about getting used to me
As for photo growing i've been doing it for about 5 years now all outside in what we call a summer.
First year was a steep learning curve like don't over feed don't move them too much from pot to pot and most of all when to harvest....I would say that was my biggest mistake first year cropped them way way too early must have been another good 3-4 weeks on them but hey ho we live and learn.
It took me a couple of years to get it right and in 2012 finally got it spot on.
I had 4 white widow 2 in pots and 2 in the ground just for comparison as i'd used both methods before but not at the same time they turned out pretty much the same maybe the ones in the ground slightly bushier.
I found that if you mainly leave them to their selves just check weekly if they need a food boost more so the pot ones than ground
let nature take it's course and don't faff around with them they will do ok
On the one pictured i didn't accurately weigh the finish just used kitchen scales which gave a reading of 320g so I was happy with that
This will be first time auto grow 1 indoors and maybe a couple outside if I can find some real small plants so hopefully when I get going i'll do a journal
Anything you want to know about outside growing just ask away and i'll try my hardest to answer
Pete