A high-quality cannabis macro shot is a beautiful thing. It lets you see dozens of trichome heads at a time, allowing you to determine if your plant is ready to harvest. High-resolution macro shots can also be used to diagnose mold or insect problems.
Overview
Equipment
Camera Settings
I prefer to shoot in manual mode. I configure my setting in this order
- ISO: set between 100 – 400, any higher will cause too much grain
- Aperture: set between f11 – f22. Start with f11 and increase if you need more sharpness (When stacking photos you can go much lower e.g. f4-f8)
- Shutter Speed: Increase until proper exposure is reached. Can be anywhere from 1/200 to 5 seconds
Stacked Macro Photography
Perhaps the biggest challenge with macro photography is depth of field. As mentioned above using a higher aperture can help bring more of the image in focus. But there is a limit to this, and using extension tubes and a low aperture means very little light is actually making it to the lens, less information for the camera to process, lower quality final image.
The way around this is stacked macro photography. To do this put your camera on manual focus and turn focus peaking on (a feature where the camera shows what is in focus using red lights overlaid on the preview).
Step 1: Take a number of shots at varying points of focus
I like to take 4-8 shots at f4-f8 using my 50mm prime with 26mm of extension tubes. Capture the full focal range you want in focus. Note that if you make absolutely everything in focus it can make the picture look “fake” as there is no depth perception. In the image above I still left certain elements out of focus to preserve realism.
Step 2: Make Image Adjustments in Adobe Lightroom
Make any touchups you want. “Auto-Sync” the changes across all the photos in the group. I usually just adjust white balance, and basic exposure to get the look I want.
Step 3: Export to Photoshop as layers
Step 4: Auto-Align and Auto-Blend in Photoshop
The next two steps are fairly straight forward. Make sure all the layers are selected and then go to Edit > Auto Align > Auto
The images will be moved around to align up to the same spot. This may change the final resolution depending on how much your camera moved between shots.
Next blend the layers by selecting Edit > Auto-Blend Layers > Stack Images. Ensure that the “Seamless Tones and Colors” and “Content Aware Fill Transparent Areas” checkboxes are ticked.
Step 4: Crop and Export your Image
Lighting
Growers face harsh lighting from grow lights. It is the same reason photographers prefer cloudy days over sunny ones. You have two options:
Option 1: Diffuse Grow Light
A light diffuser can be found for under $20. It has the same light softening effect clouds do. Put one of these between your LED board and the plant to diffuse harsh light. This is the same thing that is used to diffuse single points of light in a photography studio. You will still have the issue of getting a good angle and will need to shoot looking down at the plants.
Option 2: Use Alternative Lighting
To get the best pictures I suggest using supplementary lighting and playing around with the angle you are pointing the light from. Use a tripod for your camera and have the light behind the camera as shown below. The best pictures tend the be ones where the light is almost directly behind the camera. This makes it impossible to get proper illumination on a side profile picture, as seen below. Turn any fans off so there isn’t any movement in your canopy.
Extension Tubes
I use extension tubes to lower the focusing distance and turn my regular lens into a macro lens for ~$25. If you are buying a lens dedicated to macro shots there are some advantages, but for my purpose, a set of extension tubes does the job and I have a killer 50mm portrait lens to use for headshots.
Cell Phone Cannabis Pictures
If you don’t have a dedicated camera you can take pretty good shots with modern cell phone cameras. Pixel 3 XL has been one of my favorite phones to take macro pictures with. Zooming in slightly combined with Google’s magic stabilization lets you get some crisp shots:
As you can see above the pixel 3 can take a very impressive macro shot. Just outside of the range of being able to determine if trichomes are cloudy or amber.
Cell Phone 60x Macro Adapter
When it comes to identifying trichomes, I strongly suggest using a Clip-on phone macro lens. It is the same lens I recommend for determining if your plants are ready to harvest. You can zoom in on the small circle so the image is blown up. My pixel stabilizes the shot and auto focuses for me. This makes it a great tool for doing live trichome checks in the grow room (without needing to remove samples for testing).
The Doc’s Studio
