I dont see anything on this. I thought for sure there would be a sticky on canna photography. How to take full plant shots from up top, sides. Trich shots etc. Is there a thread on the subject here on AFN? Or elsewhere?
Photography Is there a thread/sticky on tips for taking pics?
- Thread starter lunarman
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Best tip I can give is purchase a decent dedicated digital camera as opposed to using a cellphone, as many do. Then one must learn how to control exposure rather then relying on a auto mode which determines exposure for you.
Cell phone images are auto mode images, one presses the button and gets a image with no worry about Aperture, ISO, shutter speed, many even use their dedicated cameras in this manner. When you do so, you leave all the decisions to the device you are using and basicly it controls you. These images are often blown out, shitty color balance especially shooting under 'blurple' led lights, however if you learn to control the settings in manual mode, you can overcome these issues.
when one learns the exposure triangle, how to control aperture, ISO and shutter speed, one now controls the camera and can use these settings for artistic effects and now shoot images that look different from the crowd.
Look at the plant, find the best angle, find interesting scenes within her, and fire away. With digital photography on can fire hundreds of images and save only the best.
One also must learn post process such as using photoshop, to touch up your image, resize, add contrast, add some pop.
The world of photography is fascinating and many here would absolutely love to capture their plants in a unique and eye popping way, as this is the most beautiful plant there is.
These tips are from a Professional Photographer.... I put passion in my work.
Cell phone images are auto mode images, one presses the button and gets a image with no worry about Aperture, ISO, shutter speed, many even use their dedicated cameras in this manner. When you do so, you leave all the decisions to the device you are using and basicly it controls you. These images are often blown out, shitty color balance especially shooting under 'blurple' led lights, however if you learn to control the settings in manual mode, you can overcome these issues.
when one learns the exposure triangle, how to control aperture, ISO and shutter speed, one now controls the camera and can use these settings for artistic effects and now shoot images that look different from the crowd.
Look at the plant, find the best angle, find interesting scenes within her, and fire away. With digital photography on can fire hundreds of images and save only the best.
One also must learn post process such as using photoshop, to touch up your image, resize, add contrast, add some pop.
The world of photography is fascinating and many here would absolutely love to capture their plants in a unique and eye popping way, as this is the most beautiful plant there is.
These tips are from a Professional Photographer.... I put passion in my work.
Thanks for replying and the help bro. I do have an older D50 that I could start to use. I needs a service though. Was having issues with it before.
What about tips for dealing with lighting in a tent? My tent has the silver mylar which I find doesn't work well as a background. I did buy some black and brown cardboard sheets that I can put behind plants along the tent wall to cover up the mylar but I found that did not work well either. It seems the best pictures I've seen are when the plants are removed from the tent, but my plants are not that easy to move so I am looking at finding out what are some good best practices for shooting in a tent. Like turn off all HID/HPS lights. Turn off all LED COB lights. Use a flash and shoot with all lights off. Or rig up a light to bounce off the ceiling. That sort of thing.
Love your pictures. Really rich looking monochrome.
What about tips for dealing with lighting in a tent? My tent has the silver mylar which I find doesn't work well as a background. I did buy some black and brown cardboard sheets that I can put behind plants along the tent wall to cover up the mylar but I found that did not work well either. It seems the best pictures I've seen are when the plants are removed from the tent, but my plants are not that easy to move so I am looking at finding out what are some good best practices for shooting in a tent. Like turn off all HID/HPS lights. Turn off all LED COB lights. Use a flash and shoot with all lights off. Or rig up a light to bounce off the ceiling. That sort of thing.
Love your pictures. Really rich looking monochrome.
Heh, that is mrs. bro...
It comes back to controlling exposure, when you can do this, you expose properly even in the tent.
I shot this around 10 minutes in a grow tent under a Optic 4 on full power, which has 2 cobs and some smaller blurple leds..
I am exposing for the subject, and not the reflective background, I don't use flash (which is a whole different complex subject). This image I have also adjusted my white balance.
Yes to removing the plant and putting it under better light, that will make it easier, however as the image above shows you can shoot in the tent, my focus is on the flower (my subject) and not the background, my angle is directly in front as if the plant was a person.
It comes back to controlling exposure, when you can do this, you expose properly even in the tent.
I shot this around 10 minutes in a grow tent under a Optic 4 on full power, which has 2 cobs and some smaller blurple leds..
I am exposing for the subject, and not the reflective background, I don't use flash (which is a whole different complex subject). This image I have also adjusted my white balance.
Yes to removing the plant and putting it under better light, that will make it easier, however as the image above shows you can shoot in the tent, my focus is on the flower (my subject) and not the background, my angle is directly in front as if the plant was a person.
sorry about that mrs @LittleMT
Its hard to tell who is what online.
My D50 needs a service like I mentioned. But I forgot my dad gave my wife his D80 for a trip she took to the UK and we still have it. I took it to the tent last night to do some warm up shots. I need to take baby steps so i'd like to start out working on either shutter speed or aperture priority and auto ISO. Would you say one priority mode would be better to start with over the other? or should I just pick one and go from there?
Nice flower shot. Deep and dark purples. Lots of detail on the pistils. I have an 8x8 tent so it's pretty big. And I have an HPS bulb in there which I always turn off for pictures. And a bunch of autocob LED lights which are very bright. I am thinking of turning off all the grow lights for tent shots and shooting with no flash like you mentioned. Is there a cheap DIY light setup I can use in the tent? Like maybe a normal incandescent bulb in a trouble light that I can hang behind me for each picture and shoot semi manual with a priorty? I also have a tripod which I'm assuming will be necessary for longer exposures.
Its hard to tell who is what online.
My D50 needs a service like I mentioned. But I forgot my dad gave my wife his D80 for a trip she took to the UK and we still have it. I took it to the tent last night to do some warm up shots. I need to take baby steps so i'd like to start out working on either shutter speed or aperture priority and auto ISO. Would you say one priority mode would be better to start with over the other? or should I just pick one and go from there?
Nice flower shot. Deep and dark purples. Lots of detail on the pistils. I have an 8x8 tent so it's pretty big. And I have an HPS bulb in there which I always turn off for pictures. And a bunch of autocob LED lights which are very bright. I am thinking of turning off all the grow lights for tent shots and shooting with no flash like you mentioned. Is there a cheap DIY light setup I can use in the tent? Like maybe a normal incandescent bulb in a trouble light that I can hang behind me for each picture and shoot semi manual with a priorty? I also have a tripod which I'm assuming will be necessary for longer exposures.
That's a nice camera and you may find you can get great shots with it under the lights but chances are it will throw off white balance which can be corrected in photoshop. A simple desk lamp like one of those clamp on ones with say a cool white led bulb would be great to shoot under. Aperture priority is always a good place to start. Use a smaller aperture so more is in focus, say f/5.6 or even smaller, but what happens here is with a small aperture cutting light the camera will lower shutter speed and also raise ISO to compensate. I like shooting with a faster shutter speed as this helps prevent 'camera shake' so too low of a shutter speed can cause issues, and too high ISO can cause digital noise. Automodes tend to over expose so if the camera has a exposure compensation dial I would also set it to -1. IMO it is better to underexpose slightly and then bring up brightness in post (photoshop or some other editing software} then blowing out parts of the image due to over exposure.
With that digital camera it will be fun to practice and shoot away, and see your plants in a different view, a artistic view, and capture their beauty..
Tripods are typically for long exposures which means slower shutter speeds. Tripods work nicely if you can fit it in, it will aide in keeping the camera still and avoiding camera shake, though I never use one, they are a good thing.
With that digital camera it will be fun to practice and shoot away, and see your plants in a different view, a artistic view, and capture their beauty..
Tripods are typically for long exposures which means slower shutter speeds. Tripods work nicely if you can fit it in, it will aide in keeping the camera still and avoiding camera shake, though I never use one, they are a good thing.
Thanks for the answers and tips on what I asked about. I was just out in the tent taking shots while you were writing the post. Aperture priority and f4 to f5 using the kit lens. I was opting to let more light in with a wider aperture. I will try what you suggest with the smaller aperture as well. I also configured the camera settings using Ken Rockwells guide. So now I'm ready to just shoot lots of pictures and experiment and when I get the tech aspects figured out I'll work on the creativity part. No photoshopping on the agenda at this point but when I'm ready I'll get my dad to help with that.
I also need to get in the tent lighting figured out. I'll find a desk lamp and LED bulb. I had to have the LED COB lights on for this session and they are bright.
This is the best picture I managed to take so far. Its a start for me anyway and something to build on. Its funny I saw way more pistil hair detail thru the viewfinder when I took this shot than whats in the medium sized JPEG. I think the wider aperature made it hard to get a solid auto focus, or something along those lines.
Repping for the fantastic photography tips!! I totally agree, especially with the first point! A dedicated digital camera will be a huge advantage over the majority of cell phones. Make sure you do your research!! Of course not all cameras are built equally, and the canna photographer will likely want lots of manual control(exposure, light balances ect), and a dedicated macro mode. This doesnt mean you have to spend a kings ransom though! Often older models like canon powershot's take exceptional pics and prices are not bad at all used.
$100 canon sd790 using digital macro mode
Nice image and the plant looks healthy.
A wider aperture decreases your focus area, creating shallow depth of field, a smaller aperture has a bigger focus area and more of the image will be in focus. In my 2 car images above I used a wide open aperture f/1.4 because I wanted the image to have some 3d pop, the subject in focus and the background blurry with pleasing bokeh.
A big reason for post processing via photoshop or some other editing software is the correct things the camera might not get accurate such as white balance, also to resize a image and also to crop a image, add some contrast. I shoot in manual mode but I use auto WB (White balance) and find I always correct WB in post with slight tweaks.
A wider aperture decreases your focus area, creating shallow depth of field, a smaller aperture has a bigger focus area and more of the image will be in focus. In my 2 car images above I used a wide open aperture f/1.4 because I wanted the image to have some 3d pop, the subject in focus and the background blurry with pleasing bokeh.
A big reason for post processing via photoshop or some other editing software is the correct things the camera might not get accurate such as white balance, also to resize a image and also to crop a image, add some contrast. I shoot in manual mode but I use auto WB (White balance) and find I always correct WB in post with slight tweaks.
I did a quick edit on your image lunarman and let me apologize upfront, as to edit somebodys image without consent is a HIGH CRIME in the photography forums.
I corrected WB and simple added some contrast, maybe spending 1 minute in photoshop.
I corrected WB and simple added some contrast, maybe spending 1 minute in photoshop.
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