How to photograph watches

[DanielleDavidson 0]

This is actually really good information. I mean not just for how to take photos of watches. I'm sure that it would also come in handy with other images that you're trying to take photos of. Thanks of this! It's very informative.

[Rollin Slauson 0]

Fantastic tips thanks a lot

[adrianted 0]

Thank you, much appreciated.

[autochrono 0]

Nice! The big secret is the light tent vs. 1,000,000,000 megapixel bullshit.

Great tutorial.

[annat292 0]

How do I save this guide so when I receive my watch I can take some pictures like your's at the bottom, not the two top ones I'm great at those.

[rommy396 0]

How to take photos of your watch.

 

We have all seen some amazing photos of watches on the different boards. In this tutorial I will try to give a few basic and simple tips

on how to take good quality photos of your watch. First off all the equipment...you'll need a digital camera and off course a watch...

To take good photos there is absolutely no need to buy an expensive DSLR camera and lenses worth thousands of $...any decent Point and Shoot

digital camera can produce amazing quality watch photos. So this tutorial is based on a normal Point and Shoot digital camera. In my case a Sony Cyber Shot.

 

So put your watch on the table grab your point and shoot digital camera put it on auto and click away.....

 

 

 

Ah crap ...the pics are rubbish aren't they??? ...so what went wrong?

 

Well first a few basics principles on photography..

 

Photography is all about light....and focussing

 

first there was light....

There are 3 factors that determine the amount of light which enters your camera

 

Great guide!

 

1. Shutterspeed = how long the camera shutters stays open when you take a picture...long shutterspeed will blur the shot

 

2. Aperture (f/Stop) = how long the eye/iris of your lens opens up...adjusting the aperture also changes Depth Of Field (DoP)

 

 

DoP = how much of the area is in focus.

 

 

3. ISO = a measurement of how sensitive your camera's sensor is to light...the larger the ISO, the more sensitive it is to light

which is good for photo is low light, but it also generates much more grain

 

 

 

When photographing a small object like a watch with all those details it,s very important to have good light and to get the object well focussed

in order to get as much details as possible in your picture.

 

A light tent is ideal for watch photography so we'll need one of those, a light tent can easily be made from a cardboard like this http://digital-photography-school.com/how-...sive-light-tent

 

 

or if you're lazy, like me, buy one cheaply from ebay . Since photographing is all about light we need some lamps and a couple 0f 100w

lightbolbs. And last but certainly not least you need something to stabilize the camera with.... preferably a tripod

again you can buy one these for a few $ on ebay.

 

 

here's my set up....the lightbulbs I use are photographic daylight lightbulbs, but a 100W lightbulb will do just fine...

 

 

 

So we now have:

 

1. digital camera

2. a watch

3. light tent

4. light

5. tripod

 

....we're good to go...oh one last thing clean your watch before you take pictures of...it'll be a real shame to have a good shot of a watch covered

in smudges, fingerprints, body fluids etc.....clean the damn thing... very important!

 

Now we need to set up the camera. Obviously the set up depends on your camera so read the manual if needed.

 

1. First and most important turn off the damn flash!!

...in a light tent you definitely don't need a flash, in any other circumstance if you need the flash to take a watch photo...don't

bother to take the photo but wait for better light! So now the flash is off.

2. Then you want to set the camera in the macro setting, usually there's a flower

symbol to indicate the macro setting. In macro the camera will take the photo with much more detail and allows you to zoom in closer on the watch.

 

 

3. Most point and shoot camera's have a self timer setting...Use it!! Combining the tripod and the self timer setting you will stabilize your camera

the best way possible

 

 

So now with your camera set up, the watch in the light tent...we're good to go. Focus on the watch, press the button, stand back since we're

using the self timer....and presto your watch photo is ready!!!!!

 

 

And a little more zoomed in on the object...

 

 

Again a bit more zoomed in on the object...

 

 

Hopefully you'll agree these look much better. These are straight out of the camera, untouched with photo software.

It'll be nice to know that every good photographer has taken tens, hundreds even thousands of shots to get a couple of good shots....so as with most

things in life...practise makes perfect. Practise this for a while and try out different shutterspeeds and apertures to get the hang of what light

does to a photo and how to use it to get the result you want.

Again don't be surprised if it takes a hundred shots before you're satisfied.

 

The good thing about practising a lot is that you don't have to do much with photo software to touch things up. If you want use photo software

there's free Picasa which is pretty good or you can use Photo Shop Elements....Photo Shop CS4 or CS6 is overkill imo

 

So basically if you understand the importance of good light (did I mention this before the importance of good light..?? ), getting the camera stable and focussed on the object there's not much that can go wrong

 

Hopefully this little tutorial helps.

 

How to take photos of your watch.

 

We have all seen some amazing photos of watches on the different boards. In this tutorial I will try to give a few basic and simple tips

on how to take good quality photos of your watch. First off all the equipment...you'll need a digital camera and off course a watch...

To take good photos there is absolutely no need to buy an expensive DSLR camera and lenses worth thousands of $...any decent Point and Shoot

digital camera can produce amazing quality watch photos. So this tutorial is based on a normal Point and Shoot digital camera. In my case a Sony Cyber Shot.

 

So put your watch on the table grab your point and shoot digital camera put it on auto and click away.....

 

 

 

Ah crap ...the pics are rubbish aren't they??? ...so what went wrong?

 

Well first a few basics principles on photography..

 

Photography is all about light....and focussing

 

first there was light.... impressive!!

There are 3 factors that determine the amount of light which enters your camera

 

Great guide!

 

1. Shutterspeed = how long the camera shutters stays open when you take a picture...long shutterspeed will blur the shot

 

2. Aperture (f/Stop) = how long the eye/iris of your lens opens up...adjusting the aperture also changes Depth Of Field (DoP)

 

 

DoP = how much of the area is in focus.

 

 

3. ISO = a measurement of how sensitive your camera's sensor is to light...the larger the ISO, the more sensitive it is to light

which is good for photo is low light, but it also generates much more grain

 

 

 

When photographing a small object like a watch with all those details it,s very important to have good light and to get the object well focussed

in order to get as much details as possible in your picture.

 

A light tent is ideal for watch photography so we'll need one of those, a light tent can easily be made from a cardboard like this http://digital-photography-school.com/how-...sive-light-tent

 

 

or if you're lazy, like me, buy one cheaply from ebay . Since photographing is all about light we need some lamps and a couple 0f 100w

lightbolbs. And last but certainly not least you need something to stabilize the camera with.... preferably a tripod

again you can buy one these for a few $ on ebay.

 

 

here's my set up....the lightbulbs I use are photographic daylight lightbulbs, but a 100W lightbulb will do just fine...

 

 

 

So we now have:

 

1. digital camera

2. a watch

3. light tent

4. light

5. tripod

 

....we're good to go...oh one last thing clean your watch before you take pictures of...it'll be a real shame to have a good shot of a watch covered

in smudges, fingerprints, body fluids etc.....clean the damn thing... very important!

 

Now we need to set up the camera. Obviously the set up depends on your camera so read the manual if needed.

 

1. First and most important turn off the damn flash!!

...in a light tent you definitely don't need a flash, in any other circumstance if you need the flash to take a watch photo...don't

bother to take the photo but wait for better light! So now the flash is off.

2. Then you want to set the camera in the macro setting, usually there's a flower

symbol to indicate the macro setting. In macro the camera will take the photo with much more detail and allows you to zoom in closer on the watch.

 

 

3. Most point and shoot camera's have a self timer setting...Use it!! Combining the tripod and the self timer setting you will stabilize your camera

the best way possible

 

 

So now with your camera set up, the watch in the light tent...we're good to go. Focus on the watch, press the button, stand back since we're

using the self timer....and presto your watch photo is ready!!!!!

 

 

And a little more zoomed in on the object...

 

 

Again a bit more zoomed in on the object...

 

 

Hopefully you'll agree these look much better. These are straight out of the camera, untouched with photo software.

It'll be nice to know that every good photographer has taken tens, hundreds even thousands of shots to get a couple of good shots....so as with most

things in life...practise makes perfect. Practise this for a while and try out different shutterspeeds and apertures to get the hang of what light

does to a photo and how to use it to get the result you want.

Again don't be surprised if it takes a hundred shots before you're satisfied.

 

The good thing about practising a lot is that you don't have to do much with photo software to touch things up. If you want use photo software

there's free Picasa which is pretty good or you can use Photo Shop Elements....Photo Shop CS4 or CS6 is overkill imo

 

So basically if you understand the importance of good light (did I mention this before the importance of good light..?? ), getting the camera stable and focussed on the object there's not much that can go wrong

 

Hopefully this little tutorial helps.

[matty308 0]

Finally I will have something to use the fancy camera I bought last year and haven't used hah

[whitebase 0]

Nice tutorial, for my shots I usually do the same thing, but I blocked the direct light with a shades of some kind. Particularly helpful when the watch has a black dial.

[JonjonnyB 0]

Very helpful thread .

[nickgarcia 0]

great tips - cheers

[Bucko1953 0]

Thanks great post...I'm going to try this.

[ablabla 0]

Yep great post ! nice tips for future pics !

[Rolex7960 0]

Great Information. Some of these techniques may come in handy.

[cdhappy 0]

Great post, OP; I got some great tips out of it, thank you.

 

It's interesting reading through this thread and seeing the historical progression from digital cameras to smart-phones (for us normal people). On that note I wonder where my digital camera is? I haven't seen it in years?

[madaboutyou 0]

Good tips! thanks

[johntdublin 0]

Really useful info, thank you

[tkingjr 0]

For those like myself that avoid Wal-Mart as much as possible Amazon sells the tent and other items you need. After the items arrive you an make an Unboxing Video.

[charleyboy 0]

I'm going to study this SS, great post...

Very useful tutorial indeed. I use my iPhone but light is the issue & will try the light box method.

[ddubyat 0]

everyone who posts something FS should have to read this

[brentano88 0]

very helpful. Thanks. amazon order is done

[blueradish 130]

Extremely helpful, great tips. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

[Citrite2017 0]

Great topic

[Peter0516 0]

great thread will help for selling watches in the future

[darksnider 0]

Very useful thread, I can improve my skill further by this. Thank you.

[Miyagi-san 0]

Thanks for the great tips!