Determining Trichome Readiness: Advice on Equipment or Techniques

Hi! Clear and milky trichomes can be easily confused if you didn't have proper view of then. You don't need really big magnifier, who can be difficult to stabilize, and the little one you can find in grow shops are usually good enough. Hand magnifier can also do the job as well if you're used to. Clear trichomes are really transparent so they looks darker inside, while you can't see through shady/milky so they looks completely white. But you can't confuse any of them with the amber ones, easy to spot, even to the naked eye. And it's why it's usually recommended to look at them first : if you have amber ones, you just need to check if a large majority are milky and target the milky-high/amber-stone ratio you'd like. To photograph trichomes, you need good hardware. Forget your phone and cheap clip magnifier, unless you can disable software enhancements (noise reduction, sharpening,…) who can generally ruins the picture because they aren't made for macrophotography. Your phone may also have trouble with some lights, because they are blinking so fast your eyes can't see it, but the camera do and strips may appear on pictures or and some can be darker. That can be enough for you to check your plant, but not to a more artistic picture. The trichomes photos you can see on my diaries are made with DSLR camera and a macro lens who can magnify up to 3×. If you don't have a macro lens but a DSLR or mirrorless camera, you can buy "macro tubes". Tripod is also recommended to have a more steady picture and you can lock the position of your plant while shooting it. An electronic flash may also be useful to fix the image.