Watch photography

learningtofly

learningtofly

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Name
Tony
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I suppose this is my most consistent photographic theme, so I thought I'd post a few shots here for general comment/feedback/enjoyment (hopefully at least a little of the latter, anyway). Camera set up is a 5D/II with 100mm macro, and lighting can vary from a couple of flash heads triggered by an on-camera Speedlite to continuous lighting via a couple of Masterlite panels. PP is generally limited to dust removal, a little sharpening and perhaps some vignetting to highlight the watch/dial.

Apologies if Photobucket has resulted in a loss of IQ... never worked out how to get around that one.

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Nice lightning, good exposure, great detail and interesting photos of some good looking watches.
 
Thanks, and yes - at least they either are or were, as I can't afford to keep everything and still satisfy the yearning to try new ones :)

The shots are really just for my blog (the link's in my signature) and there's a page there that has my current collection. The early attempts were pretty embarrassing, though!
 
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The F1 is a classic! I think all of these were shot using flash, although I did have some lighting panels (using fluorescent tubes) that also worked pretty well.
 
This thread has given me an idea. I don't have any lighting as such, just a table lamp (!) will that be good enough.? I have a nice piece of jewelry that I would like to try. I do have one of those mini table studio things and a tripod. Tips would be very welcome. I have just opened a Flickr account so might get them on for som critique.
 
Mad-Photographer said:
This thread has given me an idea. I don't have any lighting as such, just a table lamp (!) will that be good enough.? I have a nice piece of jewelry that I would like to try. I do have one of those mini table studio things and a tripod. Tips would be very welcome. I have just opened a Flickr account so might get them on for som critique.
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Well, you'll have to play around with the WB, I imagine, and may need a relatively long exposure to achieve the DoF that you need. Still, some experimentation should soon see some decent results.

Andrew Davies Photography said:
Had a mess round with mine last night , not massively happy with the results need some better backdrops, and it also served to tell me just how battered my poor bezel is !! Now i am going to have to find somewhere that can get me a new bezel. All good fun though :)

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Not bad at all.
 
Paul Holtom said:
Have also tried my hand at watch photography in the past and know just how hard it especially making sure there is no dust showing.
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Yes, dust is always a problem, but at least it can be tackled in PP. The biggest challenge I find is domed crystals, like the one on this vintage Seiko. Reflections are the biggest nightmare, and sometimes you just have to live with them (unless you go down the route of multiple shot composites which I've never tried and - frankly - would rather not get into).

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Mad-Photographer said:
I dont really like watches - but u make em look soooooo damn sexy!!
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Thanks very much :)
 
Mad-Photographer said:
This thread has given me an idea. I don't have any lighting as such, just a table lamp (!) will that be good enough.? I have a nice piece of jewelry that I would like to try. I do have one of those mini table studio things and a tripod. Tips would be very welcome. I have just opened a Flickr account so might get them on for som critique.
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Well that was a bloody disaster! Spent a long time last night playing with my jewelry ( that doesn't sound right:confused: ) it was a 3 stone diamond ring ( what a nightmare) I know what I wanted to achieve- but I suppose without the correct lighting it wasn't going to be great.) the image was very flat and no correct sparkle from the stones without everything else lighting up!. I'm going to try a watch instead.
 
Mad-Photographer said:
Well that was a bloody disaster! Spent a long time last night playing with my jewelry ( that doesn't sound right:confused: ) it was a 3 stone diamond ring ( what a nightmare) I know what I wanted to achieve- but I suppose without the correct lighting it wasn't going to be great.) the image was very flat and no correct sparkle from the stones without everything else lighting up!. I'm going to try a watch instead.
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*Ahem*

I didn't want to put you off trying but jewellery is very difficult to light, and quite challenging generally. I took some photos for friend's website a while back, and we had planned one day for product shots and one day for a model shoot. All I'll say is that I'd never shot anything remotely like fashion, nor had I worked with a model before, but I found that much easier than the product shots (and that was despite having to shoot with natural light only after a disaster with regard to the lighting that my friend's husband insisted on arranging on my behalf). Digressing slightly, here's a shot from the day - god knows how they came out as well as they did!

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Back to watches (and that's not a euphemism ;)), and I shot this one last night - first tme using the new softboxes. i have a bit of work to do to get it right but it's not bad for a first attempt.

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I'm feeling very vulnerable and inadequate after seeing your shots, but here goes my first attempt at a watch, with no lighting or set up and no pp. all comments ( of any kind welcome) I'm here to learn!:):)View attachment 32611
 
Hi everyone, and a very happy New Year to you all. Let's hope that 2021 see's us get a handle on this damned pandemic, and we get back to a degree of normality in our lives.

Anyway, I thought I'd update this thread, as a while back I moved on my studio flash gear (advertised here but sold elsewhere) and bought some LED heads in their place. They're tiny, ultra-lightweight and far more likely to get used as a consequence, but I was very interested to determine how suitable they are for watch photography too. Here's a couple of recent attempts - they're not too bad at all, actually, and I've found that having a couple of the lights on stands but hand-holding the fill light allows me to vary the lighting on the fly quite effectively.

Still some experimentation to do and other things to try, but I'm happy with the results so far. Oh, and if anyone's interested I've got a Godox VL150 as my key light together with a couple of tiny Nanlite Forza 60's for fill/accent.

F6.3 @ 1/60th

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F13 @ 1/250th (I had just added the Godox for a bit of extra leeway, having initially bought just the two Nanlites)

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Next step is to try some portraits, and play around with the various modifiers that I have to hand.
 
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Hi, my backup watch :


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(Showing my 30-year old ROLEX is not a call for donations. I am coping ... --- ;) )
 
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