This post will focus on photography techniques throughout the life of a cannabis plant, specifically under high pressure sodium bulbs during the flower phase. Anyone who has tried photographing plants while they are in flower knows how difficult it can be to take a flattering shot under the intense light from LED or HPS bulbs. Whether you want to track the growth in your plants, determine harvest time or just take some artistic shots of your plants- photographing the process is important and can be highly satisfying. I will show you how to overcome the challenges of working under high-wattage lighting. Whether you’re an iPhone/Pixel photographer or you have access to a DSLR and a variety of lenses, you can capture stunning cannabis shots with just about any recent camera technology.

Seedlings, Clones and Vegetative Plants

Unless you have perfect symmetry, baby plants can be a bit boring to shoot, however it is very important if you want to track changes and new growth in your plants. It’s safe to use a flash on your plants during their night (if they have one) during these stages. You will capture truest colors by shooting in the dark and using a flash with a fairly high shutter speed.

Grow Room Shoots

The flowering stage is undeniably where cannabis plants display their most stunning properties, however, it can also be the most difficult time to capture their true colors through a lens. When our plants are on their 12/12 flower cycle, we don’t want to interrupt their night time with a camera flash, so it’s best to shoot during their day. If you are able to– plan a day to go in right after the lights have come on. This will help a little with the intense light of HPS, but a flash and a fast shutter speed are going to be essential regardless. You can use a smartphone during flower, but if you have a DSLR and a prime lens you can make your ladies really pop.

If you are shooting with a smart phone you are going to want to change your white balance setting to incandescent- auto will work sometimes. You will also want to make sure you get a very sharp focus. Never zoom on a smartphone camera! You are better off cropping the photo later if you must; zooming will lower the quality of your shots and increase the chance of camera shake.

Use grow lights to your advantage to capture moody shadows and DOF

Macro Shots

Macro Shots will always be best if you shut your fans off and set up on a tripod, however it’s not necessary. Macros look best when there is a high depth of field, but the entirety of the nug is completely in focus. You will want to use manual focus here and if you have focus peaking (Sony) then even better. Here you will want a low aperture, but you probably won’t have your lens fully open, f4-8 seems optimal and I wouldn’t go above f11 typically.

Choose a fast shutter speed adjusted according to the aperture you want. I find that keeping the aperture on the low side greatly helps if you want lots of trichomes showing. Most nugs are very 3-dimensional so it’s difficult to capture high detail using a low aperture.

Landscapes

Landscape shots can be tricky- unless you have multiple flashes and/or bounce your flash off of something. Changing your white balance setting to the most accommodating, which is usually labelled incandescent or fluorescent, will drastically improve the colors of your shots. These balances will help decrease some of the yellow and orange hues that tend to take over grow room pics. When shooting the grow, try to position your camera above your lights if possible. You’ll just have to experiment here. Try auto focus and manual focus- neither one really trumps the other here. Hopefully I can come

Bounce your flash by pointing it towards the ceiling. You can also just tape a note and onto your flash. There’s plenty of creative ways to dilute/bounce your flash and you can achieve some pretty awesome colors.

How do you take pictures of your grow room? Post your shots and tips below!