trimming and pruning during flowering

Hey guys and gals,
I have two four foot plants that are at about 3.5 weeks into flowering and there is a lot of leaves including the big main fan leaves covering some branches and colas in the bottom 1/3 of the plant. I have done some pruning before so that the plant would bush more in the veg stage, but was told that is a no no?? I really want the plant to get maximum yield obviously, but do not want to hurt the plant either.
I guess my question is,
Can I or should I trim away some of the thick near the bottom thrid so that the flowering parts can gain light, and if so which part can I trim??
here are a couple of pics one I took today and the other is one I took a couple weeks ago so you can see more of the bottom in which I am talking about...
thanks ya'll

you could try what i do....tie large fan leaves together to increase canopy penetration. I think the plants need to fan leaves (power plants) to be healthy.:thumbsup:

Just leave it be.
Fan leaves need light to make sugars to fatten the buds.
You cut them off or tie them together, it's like putting a tarp over your solar panels or just throwing them off the roof.

ok thanks... what about the colas underneath that are wayyyyy behind due to lack of light?

Some cut off the small bud development on the lower parts to concentrate the energy to the top colas that are getting the light to help promote fatter, more complete top buds, or the little popcorn buds on the bottem can take away from that process.
Adieu

what i do is just drop a small wattage cfl bulb underneath the top of the canopy to give light to the lower buds, generally the buds draw energy and sugars from the fan leaves closest to them...hope this is helpful in the future.
the "J" man