Revival of the Ultimate Sativa Thread

[Guest]

The main thing I think when I see those Colombian pics is 'man, looks at those seeds in the buds, I'd love to get my hands on those!'

I think your retouch of desiderata's pic is just a tiny touch too blue now, but it's close. Desiiderata's buds are probably what Colombian buds actually looked like, the HT ones just don't look right at all, far too golden.

Here's two pics of a Trainwreck bud, first with flash, second with natural light. The one with flash is actually a lot closer to what the buds actually looked like to the naked eye.

 

[l33t]

Hiya GP

I am glad you agree that Flash + proper WB is the best option if you want accuracy as far as color reproduction goes.

In the second pic I see the usual problem I have when shooting indoors with outdoor natural light coming from outside. The Shadows(dark areas) most of the times look red tinted and the highlights are too blue tinted. So basically its 'two' light sources that have different color temperature : the cool/ blue outdoor light and the warm/red tinted light from the indoor light . Its very difficult to get pleasing to the eye pics under such lighting as the light from the one light source 'pollutes' the color from the other source (which is different color tinted) and there is no 'corect WB setting' when having such lighting scenarios.

 

[houndog]

I am 59 yrs.old and smoked Colombian Gold around the late 60's early 70's and it was mostly a very bright golden colour. Not a faded gold like I've had in other strains
There was one batch of pressed CG buds, that was still fading from a very light green to a golden yellow.

 

[Guest]

Tose two pics aren't the exact same nug, but they were both cured for 6 weeks before those pics were taen, which is obvious from the flash pic, you can see from the lovely golden hues that the chlorophyll is all gone, but the natural light pic makes it look freshly cut and green. There is a hell of a lot of photographic trickery practised these days in the ganja world, Subcool is a big culprit, he has worked out exactly how to use flash to make his plants look sooo frosty.

I don't agree that my natural light pic is off colourwise due to the mix of lighting as it was taken at roughly midday and there was no artifical lights turned on at the time, it's the camera's fault, it has done some internal processing of the image to compensate for lower light levels and in the process, messed up the colours. If I took a picture of that trainwreck bud outside in direct sunlight it would have had fine colour balance, it's the lower light levels indoors that caused the colour shift.

To get proper colour rendition indoors with natural light you need to place your subject close to a window that haslots of sunlight flooding in and use a tripod and long exposure, you should never attempt to take handheld shots at anything less than 1/30th of a second, as even the steadiest hand cannot hold the camera still enough to avoid blur. I don't have a very steady hand so I never shoot handheld at less than 1/45th or 1/60th without flash. If I need a longer exposure than that, it's time to break out the tripod. Natural light and plenty of it, and diffused is best for accurate colour rendition, but like I say, you need to use a tripod and I would suggest bracketing your exposures, most cameras have a bracketing function that takes 5 exposures at -2, -1, 0, +1 and +2 stops. Elevator Man is one of the few people I've seen that actually bothers taking good, posed photographs, he places his plants by a window at roughly midday for the most light and uses a tripod and longer exposure and takes many pics and selects the best ones. I really can't be arsed taking this much effort, I just set the camera flash and exposure and shoot a few shots then get busy trimming and harvesting the plant. Sometimes I don't even bother taking pictures of all my plants, just the more interesting ones. I'm not trying to win any photo contests, I'm trying to grow buds, although I have respect for those that do take a lot of care with their photos, each to their own.

Hiya houndog, are you saying that the HT golden CG is the same as you remember? I am curious to know what process was used to turn it that colour, if anyone knows, let me know and I'll try it with some of my Colombian Gold seeds I got last year from an oldtimer, they are one generation on from the originals he picked out of buds in 1972.

 

[hoosierdaddy]

I have smoked and bought quite a bit of CG back in the day. Although the pic showing the very bright yellow may seem a bit exaggerated by lighting, I can tell you that I have often seen batches of CG that looked exactly like the picture.
Most CG was more like the pic directly below the bright yellow one, although the real deal would be a bit more tan looking than in that pic.

The real bright yellow weed you had to be very discerning with, as some times it would be nothing but bleached schwag. But, if it were really top shelf herb with that color, it would always be one of the best most tasty and potent smokes around.

 

[African herbman]

I would like to share with you all some pics of a very sad Thai girl who’s had a hard life .
She is from Thai seeds imported from some ware in Asia I think. She was grown outdoors in an are that received about 1hour direct sunlight a day max which is bad but for a Thai with their already skimpy nuggets was even worse. She also suffered from bad powdery mildew and bud-rot even with such airy nugs (no humidity problems). And on top of all that, she was really battling with the cold. I think being straight from wherever she's from means she's not used to climate, winter temperature and potential diseases and pests South Africa has to offer. Her sister did well indoors protected from the outdoor threats.

I crossed her to a local Durban Poison male, I'm sure he will boost their offspring’s resistance being fully acclimatised himself.

Here she is, I think she has a lot of potential if grown in the right environment or indoors maybe...

 

[BeAn]

There is a hell of a lot of photographic trickery practised these days in the ganja world, Subcool is a big culprit, he has worked out exactly how to use flash to make his plants look sooo frosty.

To be fair, and having grown a few of Subcool's hybrids..they are as frosty as they look in the photo's(in my experiance)...the 3D buds from the pheno i ran looked exactly like the pictures in weedworld(advert for pistil's site..)


Wish i had somthing more to add, but the most sativa genes i have growing are Apollo13...

 

[Guest]

That's a shame about the Thai, obviously not a strain that likes a change of environment. In my experience, South African strains (Swazi, Durban, Malawi) are really tough, and that indicates to me an adaptation to tough conditions, that Thai isn't adapted so had it very hard.

Hiya Bean, I was referring to how subcool uses flash to emphasise the resin, all his pics are like that and I much prefer seeing more modest shots as they give you a fairer impression that all this portrait studio style stuff.

I can't remember whether it was esbe or paddi, but they posted a good explanation of why they didn't like shots taken with flash a while back and I agreed fully.

I guess what it boils down to is that I would prefer to see what subcool's plants look like in natural light as they would appear to the naked eye, not how good they CAN look if posed carefully and lit just right as that gives a false impression.

One thing I see a lot of (and there are many people on icmag guilty of this) is using a sharpen filter to make plants look frostier.

This is a really bad example I knocked up in 2 mins, but you get the pint:

 

[bonecarver_OG]

flash to emphasise the resin, all his pics are like that and I much prefer seeing more modest shots as they give you a fairer impression that all this portrait studio style stuff.

i agree with ya

i enjoy much more using a tripod and creative lighting.






edit - i put the pic back

 

[Guest]

Beautiful pic bone, I heartily approve of natural lighting. Elevator Man has refined natural light cannabis photography to a fine art and anyone wanting to see what I consider a properly representative picture of cannabis, go check out his work.

The main reason I rarely take natural light pics is that my lights run at night and it's night when I do most of my work in the garden. However, here are some natural light pics I took a while back with a tripod and just sunlight.

Same plant but pics taken the night before with flash:

 

[bonecarver_OG]

man - nice pics - great example of the whitening effect flash has in the highlights

yeah, man u know how it is - who has time after work to come home and then set it all up for a nice tripod shot.. thats the problem for me

i also use flash most of the time in the growroom its simple and quick - but i agree 100% it changes the effect of bud shot.

edit - also flash takes away depth - witch is quite important sometimes - but also the shadows it creates (if ur not bouncing the light of multiple flashes of the wall - but it seems expensive and not really necesary hehe) hides so much.

i think best pics are taken in the evening or the morning on a semi cloudy day no over head light, and difused light makes the pics nicer - just like in any normal outdoor photography for macro

but really as i say - its a time question i guess

 

[Guest]

I agree bone, the best pics are those taken with diffuse light, I use a flash diffuser, which helps, but still not great to use flash for accurate representation.

Early mornings have the best light quality, overcast days are good too, the light is more diffuse.

 

[houndog]

Hi GP, yes the CG I could get was a very bright golden yellow, it was superb.
Very heady stuff.

 

[Raco]

Great inputs!!
Colombian,yellowish and green

 

[mriko]

An homegrown Malana jungli strain, with and without flash











And some buds of homegrown Tosh jungli strains














Irie !

 

[ElAhrJi]

I like both the subcool type of pics and the more "real" shots other people do...

If I had to choose I would take a "sub-shot" with nice lighting and background, over a "point an shoot" pic with a messy room as background...

Not a pure sat, but pretty sat-dom...Blueberry X O. haze...



Edit: beautiful shots mriko...!

 

[Guest]

Great pics Raco, those buds look so tasty. One day I'm gonna have to come to Spain and visit because I've drooled at your work for so long, it would be like a dream come true to see it in the flesh so to speak!

Mriko, I love your posts because I love landraces and you always have such great info and fine landrace varietals to show off.

 

[esbe]

wonderful guys!

mriko. this is world class art! dont know if its flashed or not. flashing outdoor may get you a better pic in some situations.

 

[endlesssummer]

wow, where do i get this strain? that's a plant i'd love to have in my backyard, so delicate

 

[mriko]

Mriko, I love your posts because I love landraces and you always have such great info and fine landrace varietals to show off.

Thanks GP ! Be ready for more (many), I'm currently doing copies of the CDs from my travels (getting old), hmmmm brings back nice memories !

mriko. this is world class art! dont know if its flashed or not. flashing outdoor may get you a better pic in some situations.

Thanks esbe ! But I have no merit, I just pushed the button ! The Tosh pics were shot with a, probably older than I, Canon camera without flash. Sure doesn't get the resolution of today's digicams, but makes great pics !

Nice Bush ElAhrJi !

Here some Hindu Kush wild sativa, from Kalash valley of Rumbur (Chitral District)

wow, where do i get this strain? that's a plant i'd love to have in my backyard, so delicate

I'm afraid you'll have to go to Parvati valley for that. I picked the seeds early September from a very resinous plant which was close to ready. Most of seeds brought back were alas lost to some unscrupulous person, and from this plant pictured here I could get only a few seeds resulting from pollination by a Yarkhun male.
I didn't manage so far to germ any of the seeds, I'll have to give a try with some Gib. acid. Whatever I'm supposed to be in Parvati for harvest-time so that'll be a perfect opportunity for seed collecting !

Seeds were picked in this old orchard completely overgrown by ganja trees. A seed collector dream, different phenos everywhere ! I've seen pretty large fields but this patch is the most amazing I have seen to date. So delightfull to walk around, every step leading you to a different kind of plant and renewed amazement ! Sad thing I had no digicam at that time...









Irie !