A simple guide to taking good wrist pics.
I've been asked on many occasions how I manage to get good wrist pics so thought I'd share some simple tips. There's nothing earth-shattering here and I will assume that you will be using your phone camera, rather than a "real" digital camera, and that you will want to take the photo quickly for upload to one of the various "wrist-check" threads on RWG.
Clean the watch. I don't mean a full spa treatment but simply a quick polish of the crystal, bezel and top of case (that will be visible in the photo) to remove fingerprints and dust. Use a microfibre cloth if possible but failing that the edge of your t-shirt or shirt sleeve, etc. and then give it a quick blow of air to remove any loose fibres.
Clean the phone camera lens. It will almost certainly be covered in dust and fingerprints from being in your pocket - there is no point in cleaning your watch only to have the photo ruined by a dirty lens!
You must hold the phone and your wrist as steady as possible to help reduce the chance of a blurred photo. However, this will be difficult as movements in both of your hands will make taking a sharp photo challenging so rest your watch hand on a desk, table, your leg or against a wall to steady the watch.
Take the photo in a well-lit spot. If you are indoors then try to take the photo where natural light is shining onto the watch, or where the artificial lighting is brightest - preferably "cool" LED lighting rather than "warm" lighting as this is closer to natural light. You will never take a good wrist shot in a poorly lit area - the phone camera will struggle to focus properly, the depth of field will be reduced and the photo will be grainy at best.
Try to reduce unwanted reflections on the crystal by experimenting with different locations and different angles of the watch. For example, if an artificial light source is reflecting on the crystal then it might be a simple case of angling your wrist away from the camera or indeed towards the camera. The same goes with natural light - perhaps the window is reflecting badly on the crystal but by angling the watch towards the ceiling you can still get the benefit of the natural light but without the reflection of the window.
Use the phone's inbuilt photo editor to tweak the photo if required (the iOS one is excellent but I assume most modern Android phones have one too, or can be downloaded for free). For example, you can very simply increase the brightness and contrast to enhance the lighting in your photo, or make the photo cooler by decreasing the "cast" setting. The best thing to do is to play about with the various settings and see for yourself what they do!
Finally, upload the photo to www.picr.me, which is easy to use from a mobile browser and enables you to easily copy the full size BB code for your uploaded photo ready to paste into the relevant wrist-check thread! Some examples:- Here is today’s wrist shot of my Tudor Black Bay. Note that my hand, although not visible, is in contact with the wall for support. And because of the natural light coming through the window from the left I only needed to brighten the photo slightly with the editor. This photo of my Tudor Black Bay GMT was from last week and my arm is clearly resting on my desk at work! The window is to the right but to minimise reflections on the crystal I angled the watch towards the ceiling. I took this photo of my Omega Speedmaster on Sunday in a shopping centre with a glass roof. This is an example of when reflections are ok as I think they help accentuate the domed crystal on the watch. The natural light was bright so no editing was required. I hope some folk find this useful.
Clean the phone camera lens. It will almost certainly be covered in dust and fingerprints from being in your pocket - there is no point in cleaning your watch only to have the photo ruined by a dirty lens!
You must hold the phone and your wrist as steady as possible to help reduce the chance of a blurred photo. However, this will be difficult as movements in both of your hands will make taking a sharp photo challenging so rest your watch hand on a desk, table, your leg or against a wall to steady the watch.
Take the photo in a well-lit spot. If you are indoors then try to take the photo where natural light is shining onto the watch, or where the artificial lighting is brightest - preferably "cool" LED lighting rather than "warm" lighting as this is closer to natural light. You will never take a good wrist shot in a poorly lit area - the phone camera will struggle to focus properly, the depth of field will be reduced and the photo will be grainy at best.
Try to reduce unwanted reflections on the crystal by experimenting with different locations and different angles of the watch. For example, if an artificial light source is reflecting on the crystal then it might be a simple case of angling your wrist away from the camera or indeed towards the camera. The same goes with natural light - perhaps the window is reflecting badly on the crystal but by angling the watch towards the ceiling you can still get the benefit of the natural light but without the reflection of the window.
Use the phone's inbuilt photo editor to tweak the photo if required (the iOS one is excellent but I assume most modern Android phones have one too, or can be downloaded for free). For example, you can very simply increase the brightness and contrast to enhance the lighting in your photo, or make the photo cooler by decreasing the "cast" setting. The best thing to do is to play about with the various settings and see for yourself what they do!
Finally, upload the photo to www.picr.me, which is easy to use from a mobile browser and enables you to easily copy the full size BB code for your uploaded photo ready to paste into the relevant wrist-check thread! Some examples:- Here is today’s wrist shot of my Tudor Black Bay. Note that my hand, although not visible, is in contact with the wall for support. And because of the natural light coming through the window from the left I only needed to brighten the photo slightly with the editor. This photo of my Tudor Black Bay GMT was from last week and my arm is clearly resting on my desk at work! The window is to the right but to minimise reflections on the crystal I angled the watch towards the ceiling. I took this photo of my Omega Speedmaster on Sunday in a shopping centre with a glass roof. This is an example of when reflections are ok as I think they help accentuate the domed crystal on the watch. The natural light was bright so no editing was required. I hope some folk find this useful.
In that case you could rest your camera hand on a book or arm of a chair that is higher than where you rest your watch hand, thus steadying both hands. When you find a suitable arrangement it makes it even easier and quicker to take a wrist shot as you can just replicate the set up each time (I use the same spots all the time!).