New Week Wristies w/c 14th December 09

[AustinTech 0]

 

PARNIS on you!

[AllergyDoc 40]

[KinCaidk 0]

Nice one Doc.. where from?

[dingle 57]

 

are these type of pictures possible with a digital camera?

[Member X 91]

Certainly!

[greg_r 81]

are these type of pictures possible with a digital camera?

 

Of course!

[dingle 57]

are these type of pictures possible with a digital camera?

 

Of course!

 

I'll give it a try when I get home. How do you get them to be so clear?

[AllergyDoc 40]

I picked this Skyland off Submersible24g on RG. It's a V1. You can buy this version from at least one dealer and the V3, which is probably better, but I'm not sure because I haven't seen a V3, from Greg at watchwoot.com. When I charge this one under a reading lamp for 5 minutes, I can easily read the time at 5:00 AM. My V2 hardly lumed at all.

 

 

I take most of my watch photos with a 6MP Fuji Finepix F11. This model was released in Japan only, but I got one imported. The F10 was voted the European Pocket Camera of the year in 2005. The F11 added a manual mode, which I can't figure out how to use, and shutter and aperture priority modes. There is just something "magical" about the images this camera makes. The color tone is always spot on: auto levels in Photoshop Elements never changes the image. This is def. not the case with my DSLRs.

 

I shoot watch pictures at 2MP, which produces an image 1800 pixels wide: more than enough for the Internet. I shoot with as low ISO as possible, which is 80 ISO on this camera. Sometimes the lighting doesn't allow that. When you go up to 200 ISO, the images start to look like this:

 

 

They start to get a little grainy, primarily in the background. I like that look, but you lose some of the detail.

 

I use the aperture priority mode so I can control the depth of field. Of course, the camera is in macro mode. I shoot with a minus 2/3 exposure compensation. Without this, the meter tends to overexpose. Lastly, I try to shoot all my pics outdoors, either in the shade or on overcast days. This produces even lighting.

 

The key is a steady hand. Prop your hands on something--the table, wall, column, whatever--and they will function as a tripod.

 

I import into Photoshop Elements 5.0 (too cheap to upgrade) where I crop and set the size to 1024 pixels wide. I used to set them at 800 pixels but everyone has big monitors now and the bigger images look better. DPI is 72, usually. Occasionally 100. 300 DPI isn't needed for Internet viewing and it just makes for bigger files and gobbles up bandwidth. Greg doesn't like that.

 

Sometimes I use the Auto Fix or Auto Levels commands. As I said, Auto Levels doesn't do anything with my Fuji, but Auto Fix sometimes brings out a little detail in dark bands or dials. I never fiddle with color saturation with images from this camera as it isn't necessary.

 

Lastly, I use the advanced sharpening tool under the Enhance Menu. I forget the name of it, it lets you sharpen for lens blur, and some other parameters. It is far superior to the old Photoshop sharpening tool. I don't go more than 80% (I think it goes up to 200%) as I think it makes the image look a little oversharpened. This makes the details on the watch "pop."

 

I save it with a file size rating of 10. Since I use Flickr now, I don't have to worry about file sizes when uploading. Flickr doesn't degrade the images by compressing them like Imagecave does. I don't know of Photobucket compresses images or not.

[dingle 57]

thanks for all the info AD.

 

Greg--can we sticky this? I know i'm not the only one who can use this info.

[Member X 91]

I shoot as follows:

 

choose the lowest ISO I can,

use a tripod for the camera if possible (or stand it on the surface I'm shooting on/something nearby to get a bit of height),

use the timer so I can press the button then let the camera return to a stationary (stationery? whatever lol) position,

and shoot on a small shutter aperture (high F number).

 

This means that you get:

 

less grainy images,

no camera shake or picture blur from moving hands,

again, no camera shake or picture blur from moving hands,

and everything in the picture in focus (a deep depth of field).

 

You can use a low F number (a large shutter aperture) and only one element of the picture will be in focus.

 

This is a large shutter aperture picture:

 

 

As you can see, only one part of the watch dial is in focus.

 

If you use a smaller aperture, you can get lots more of the watch dial (and surroundings) in focus:

 

 

 

 

Apologies if the above is obvious and already known, I just thought I'd post an example!

[dingle 57]

nope, none of that was known to me. I do not know anything about taking pictures. Thanks for all your input!

[Member X 91]

I think the best thing to do is to get your camera on manual mode (you might have to RTFM to work out how lol) then simply change one of the available settings from one end of its scale to the other. (Aperture/F number, exposure time, ISO.) You can then see the effect that the extremes of each setting have - this is the best demonstration available for what they do!

[Member X 91]

Oh, and wristies this week for me are:

 

Sunday:

White dial BR01 homage on new strap

 

 

 

Monday:

Cali dial BR01 homage on new strap

 

 

 

Today:

PAM 24 homage on rubber (as supplied on it)

 

 

 

Will see how I feel tomorrow - I always have to decide on the morning of choosing! lol

[Massimo 53]

Great info on the photography, guys, thank you. For me the big tip out of those is the ISO, having gradually picked up the tripod and timer stuff from previous photography threads. I don't think I can adjust the F stop on my compact.

 

What little I know about photography I picked up here, and I love that.

[Member X 91]

Bizarrely I've just been having another conversation on a different forum about taking pictures lol

 

This is the most stripped down version I could think of!

 

 

Indoors / poor lighting:

 

Set up watch/strap and background (or have an idea where you're going to have your wrist)

 

Set up tripod/thing to rest the camera on

 

Choose Program or Aperture Priority on the camera

 

Select a high F-number (a small shutter aperture)

 

Select a low ISO

 

Turn off flash

 

Select camera timer

 

Aim camera at watch/wrist

 

Press button halfway so it finds the focus (you may need Macro mode if it's quite close)

 

Press button whole way so it triggers the timer

 

Stand back and leave camera alone till photo is taken

 

 

And for outdoors or somewhere with really bright lighting:

 

 

Set up watch/strap and background (or have an idea where you're going to have your wrist)

 

Choose Program or Aperture Priority on the camera

 

Select a high F-number (a small shutter aperture)

 

Select a low ISO

 

Turn off flash

 

Aim camera at watch/wrist

 

Press button halfway so it finds the focus (you may need Macro mode if it's quite close)

 

Press button whole way so takes the photo.

 

Check to see if there's blur in the picture from camera shake - if so, either select a bigger aperture (smaller F number), choose a higher ISO number (most will still look ok a couple of notches up from the lowest setting in the sunlight) or break out the tripod and shoot as indoors!

 

You'd be surprised how even a bright day to your eyes can have a camera struggling to take short exposures.

 

 

That's about as simple as I can make it in my head! lol

 

If you're outside and it's sunny you really shouldn't need to do the timer and tripod thing unless you've got Parkinsons LoL

[dingle 57]

daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn. watch photography 101. great thread. Kinky please move to keep the wristie thread alive.....

 

Thanks again fellas.

[AllergyDoc 40]

I only use a tripod when I'm shooting with my DSLR and macro lens, which is almost never. I'm just too lazy. Tripods are always better, but in the time it would take me to dig out all my gear, set it up, and take the photos, I would already have uploaded by digicam photos to Flickr and be ready to post.

[KinCaidk 0]

Thanks for the phototips Doc....

[ebzen02 341]

Thanks for the phototips Doc....

 

 

I just shoot

[greg_r 81]

Been about a month since I wore this, so figured it was time...

 

[Silverspeed 10]

 

[SliceMaster 281]

The Daytona I just got from Lawrence cause my first one didnt work, its ok even if i didnt realize it had "diamond" hourmarkers when I asked him to send this one but its not to obvious so I like it...btw its VERY expensive 65 US incl shipping hehe

 

Edited December 16, 2009 by SliceMaster

[greg_r 81]

The Daytona I just got from Lawrence cause my first one didnt work, its ok even if i didnt realize it had "diamond" hourmarkers when I asked him to send this one but its not to obvious so I like it...btw its VERY expensive 65 US incl shipping hehe

 

 

 

LOL - how extravagant of you...

[SliceMaster 281]

The Daytona I just got from Lawrence cause my first one didnt work, its ok even if i didnt realize it had "diamond" hourmarkers when I asked him to send this one but its not to obvious so I like it...btw its VERY expensive 65 US incl shipping hehe

 

 

 

LOL - how extravagant of you...

 

I know, starting a new trend maybe

[Member X 91]

lol

 

 

That Chopard is great, SS - normally not keen on gold but it looks good!

 

 

Wearing this today as I'm coordinated black and grey lol