{"id":36095,"date":"2019-06-14T05:00:22","date_gmt":"2019-06-14T13:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2019\/06\/14\/stacking-shots-with-concentrate-photographer-dave-tomanovich\/"},"modified":"2019-06-14T12:41:05","modified_gmt":"2019-06-14T20:41:05","slug":"stacking-shots-with-concentrate-photographer-dave-tomanovich","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2019\/06\/14\/stacking-shots-with-concentrate-photographer-dave-tomanovich\/","title":{"rendered":"Stacking Shots With Concentrate Photographer Dave Tomanovich"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

You\u2019d be amazed at how long it can take Dave Tomanovich to post a single picture on Instagram. His latest snap of Holy Hash\u2019s Headband and Stardawg cross spotlights each angular nook and cranny of the live resin, glowing amber like a precious stone. This shot may look deceptively simple, but behind the scenes, it could have taken hours for the 640 x 640-pixel frame to premiere on Tomanovich\u2019s account, @daves_not_h3r3_man.<\/p>\n

He is not a point-shoot-post kind of guy \u2014 cannabis photography is his full-time job. And it has attracted more than 30,000 followers to his Instagram page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be 45 this year,\u201d he says. \u201cUp until three years ago, I sort of tongue-in-cheek said, \u2018I wish I knew what I was going to do when I grow up.\u2019 I never thought I could get paid to take pictures of anything, let alone something that I\u2019m really passionate about. This is a literal life dream come true.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
Orange Ghost from Oil Well Industries.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

When Tomanovich first moved to Colorado<\/a> in 2012, he didn\u2019t own any professional photography equipment. But a few years later, when major undiagnosed health issues cost him his job building water wells, Tomanovich\u2019s family saw the loss as an opportunity, lending him the money to upgrade from consumer gear, launching a whole new career.<\/p>\n

Now, you can count Tomanovich among the upper echelon of concentrate photographers, rubbing shoulders with accomplished artists like Sean Moore<\/a> and Erik Christiansen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
Grape Ape, a high-terpene extract and THCA
diamond from Colorado\u2019s Oil Well Industries.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThe extraction community is extremely secretive,\u201d he says, but \u201cthe photography community is very supportive and very helpful, in part maybe because it\u2019s small enough that people don\u2019t feel threatened by other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Armed with his Canon 6D and a few macro lenses (MP-E 65mm and 100mm L, if you\u2019re wondering), Tomanovich has a long client list, including Colorado-based cannabis companies like Oil Well Concentrates<\/a> and AllGreens Extraction Co<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have
\nmy own garden, so this is all typically medical or recreational market stuff,\u201d
\nhe says. He\u2019s also a big fan of nature photography, which is why you\u2019ll see
\nphotos of tigers and elk next to cannabis buds and extracts in his feed.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
Headband x Stardawg from Holy Hash. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

When
\nTomanovich started establishing himself as a macro photographer, he quickly
\nrealized that he wasn\u2019t going to get a crystal-clear, high-quality shot on the
\nfirst go. \u201cWhen you do a portrait, typically you can get a person\u2019s face, as
\nmuch of the face you want, in focus,\u201d he says. \u201cMacro stuff, that\u2019s almost always
\nimpossible. It\u2019s hard to get a nug from the front to the back in focus.\u201d<\/p>\n

So instead, Tomanovich has to snap hundreds of shots, visually documenting each and every single millimeter of the product. To help, he uses a macro rail, which allows Tomanovich to move his camera in tiny increments.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
\u201cLive heads,\u201d or ice-water hash, of the Never Summer Kush strain from AllGreens Extraction.
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Next, Tomanovich takes these pictures, uploads them into a photo-stacking software called Zerene<\/a>, which will digitally assemble all the sharpest parts of all of the individual photos, and creates the perfect composite that his followers will see on Instagram. Then the likes and comments start rolling in.<\/p>\n

This prolonged process isn\u2019t as much of an undertaking when it comes to flower, or even THCA<\/a> crystals, because the products are static and don\u2019t budge in the middle of a photoshoot. But with other concentrates, which can be runny and unpredictable, Tomanovich is dealing with a more high-maintenance subject.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
Platinum distillate from AllGreens Extraction.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s saucy and they don\u2019t want to stay on the dabber, they spread out,\u201d he explains. \u201c[Concentrates] don\u2019t stay the same shape from the beginning of the shoot to the end of it\u2026 the challenge is to keep everything in place to do the stack or to edit it the right way so it doesn\u2019t look weird.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a result,
\nTomanovich doesn\u2019t recommend this kind of photography for the casual,
\nconsumer-grade, side-hustle hobbyist. And a smartphone camera definitely isn\u2019t
\ngoing to cut it.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur phones
\nare pretty damn amazing, and [the photos] look really good on the phone,\u201d he
\nsays. \u201cBut when you put it on a computer screen or you want to print it, that\u2019s
\nwhen you see this is a phone picture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, he says aspiring photographers don\u2019t need to invest in $10,000 worth of gear just yet.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
Pink Lemonade from Oil Well Industries.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cMy best
\npiece of advice would be more of a general photography thing: Pick up a DSLR
\nand learn how to use that in a manual mode,\u201d Tomanovich says. \u201cLearn everything
\nabout the camera.\u201d<\/p>\n

After all, it
\nwasn\u2019t that long ago that Tomanovich was only an amateur.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got really
\nsick when I was 35, sick enough that I didn\u2019t know if I was going to be able to
\nwork again, if I was going to provide for myself,\u201d he says. \u201cI still have
\nhealth issues, but to be able to do my life\u2019s dream as a job \u2014 it doesn\u2019t get
\nmuch better than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

TELL US<\/strong>, who\u2019s your favorite cannabis photographer?<\/p>\n

Originally published in Issue 36 of Cannabis Now. LEARN MORE<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The post Stacking Shots With Concentrate Photographer Dave Tomanovich<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n


\n
\nRead More: Stacking Shots With Concentrate Photographer Dave Tomanovich<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You\u2019d be amazed at how long it can take Dave Tomanovich to post a single picture on Instagram. His latest snap of Holy Hash\u2019s Headband and Stardawg cross spotlights each angular nook and cranny of the live resin, glowing amber like a precious stone. This shot may look deceptively simple,Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":36096,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,943,779,10269,240,10270,6515,10261,85,9548,6517,10271,7058],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36095"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36095"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36097,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36095\/revisions\/36097"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}