field notes
lighting for cannabis: what actually works and why
Bad lighting is the fastest way to make great cannabis look average. And in a market where product photography often lives or dies on a…
what to bring (and what to skip) when you book a product shoot
You’ve booked a shoot. Good. Now comes the part most clients don’t think about until the day of: what to actually show up with. Here’s…
why your dispensary menu photos are losing you sales
Here’s something most dispensary operators don’t think about: the photos on your menu are the single most important conversion tool in your entire retail operation.…
focus stacking for trichome work: what you actually lose without it
At true macro magnification, depth of field stops being a problem and becomes physics. A trichome head is bigger than the focus zone available to you. This is why focus stacking exists.
shooting on site at a grow vs studio: the honest tradeoffs
Both work. Both have failure modes. The right call depends on what the images are for, not which one the photographer prefers.
the phone problem: why dispensary menu photos look the way they do
Modern phone cameras are stunning. The problem is that the things they cannot do are exactly the things cannabis macro work needs. Five things a phone will not do, no matter how good the sensor.
black backgrounds for cannabis: when they sell and when they kill the shot
Black is the default move for cannabis macro and works most of the time. The other ten percent, it ruins the shot. When black sells, when it does not, and the lighting that makes it work.