Omegas

[photorog 0]

Here are some Omegas I bought from Narikka, WBK and Sead. I like them all. Now I want to get some of the chrono's. I've posted a lot of photos today because of all the info and help I've gotten from this forum and the dealers I've had great experiences with. Maybe they'll help somebody else.

 

 

Narikka Planet Ocean 42mm

 

 

 

 

 

WBK Seamaster Pro 42mm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sead Ultimate Planet Ocean 45.5mm

 

 

 

 

 

[robbnj 0]

Nice shots! 'You take these yourself?

[photorog 0]

Nice shots! 'You take these yourself?

Yes, I finally got around to doing a quick setup and taking some photos of my favorites.

[Luthier 1]

Great photography!

What movements in these reps?

[photorog 0]

Thanks! The first two are the 21J versions and the UPO is the ETA verison. Probably Asian.

[KBH 7]

You're quite the photographer, Photorog!

[AustinTech 0]

Damn son! You could give ttk a run for his money!! (Don't ask)

 

Seriously good photos.

[photorog 0]

Thanks, KBH! To be honest, I'm a photo editor for a newspaper and have been a staff photog for different papers for 20 years. Product photography is different from what I do normally but the experience helps. Kind of cool, the watches don't talk or move!

[photorog 0]

AustinTech, I've see ttk's shots and they are fricken' awesome! I consider that a high compliment! Thanks!

[Luthier 1]

Aha... Professional.

Be ready for 126,853 questions about phototricks from us.

B)

[oscarmadfish 0]

great pics and watches

[Omeg@007 0]

My Favorite Brand

[jroigz 0]

hi you there? can you help me?

where can i buy the highest quality omega seamaster 300 replica?

[Luthier 1]

hi you there? can you help me?

where can i buy the highest quality omega seamaster 300 replica?

 

Ask Mary or Robert.

[Goon 0]

That is some stunning photography there. Nice collection as well!

[photorog 0]

Thanks! Now I need some omega chronos.

[GC 4,512]

Really beautiful shots photorog! And some real sweet Omegas too!

 

Thanks for share'n!

[photorog 0]

Hey, thanks, G! Going to try a linear polarizer next, see if I can control the reflections of of the crystal better.

[photorog 0]

One of the other members asked me what my setup for these were. I do have access to some nice equipment as I'm a photo editor for a newspaper, but this is a pretty cheap, easy setup for some decent results.

 

 

 

It's a one light setup for most of the images. This is an old flash with a inexpensive softbox on it. It's a Lumiquest softbox III, about a 8" X 9" softbox.

 

http://www.lumiquest.com/products/softbox-iii.htm.

 

A cheaper way to go is to make your own.

 

http://www.lighting-academy.com/index.php?...iffusor&L=1

 

I would recommend adding sides to this, you have to keep the light from spilling out .

 

The flash was mounted on a cheap lightstand. The expensive part were the wireless remotes I used, but a inexpensive PC cable would work as well. You just need a way to trigger the flash since it is off-camera.

 

Get the softbox close to your watch. The larger the light source is in relation to the subject, the softer the light is. Generally, you don't want hard light falling on your subject. It give you nice soft shadows. The light falloff is nice as well, meaning it doesn't spill into the background.

 

I used a couple of folded pieces of paper to act as bounce cards to fill in shadowed areas. This is cool because it allow you to move the cards around to where you need them. Take a shot, check the image on the camera screen and move the card if you need to.

 

The camera was a DSLR, since this is what I use on the job. I used a Micro Nikkor 105mm since I have one, but I also use 18-35mm nikkor that I picked up used for $30 in a camera repair shot. It has a nice macro capability. With a macro, you want to get as much depth of field as you can. Basically, it means you want as much in focus or sharp as possible. F2.8 is a very shallow depth of field, F.16 the world is in focus on normal lenses. I went to f.40 for these shots, as a macro has a very shallow DOF. It also made the room go black.

 

To get a nice black background, you have to control the light. I set the exposure up so that without the flash, I would have a black frame. The idea is to subtract all of the light. Then you start adding light back in. First I added the softbox overhead. Checked to make that the light wasn't spilling into the background, which would ruin the perfect black I wanted as a background. Then I added my bounce cards, making sure to keep them out of frame. Check the image again and adjust the various pieces to make sure the light was falling where I wanted it to and I wasn't getting any unwanted reflections in the crystal.

 

I did add a second light for the Bond Seamaster because I wanted to bring the detail out in the dial, that cool wave pattern. This was a direct flash that I used snoot for. Check this out.

 

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/03/light...snoots-and.html

 

You can make a cheap snoot with a piece of cardboard and some tape. The idea here is once again to control the light. Without a snoot, the light spills everywhere and would have contaminated my black background. Now this is a hard light that I backed off a little bit, because I wanted the shadows I would get to make the wave pattern pop a little bit or have definition. I put it off to the side a bit to keep the reflections off of the crystal.

 

The second flash does have a built-in optical slave that sets it off when the first flash goes off. Options for this are an optical slave or trigger which are fairly inexpensive, maybe $20 USD.

 

Camera settings were ISO 800, 125/sec at f.40. I tend to shoot on full manual all the time, because it give me complete control over the image. Shooting with digital is awesome because I can check the results immediately and make adjustments on the fly. Using Program means you lose this control This particular setting gave me a totally black picture without the flash. The main light or flash was on manual as well and set to 1/16th power since it was literally almost right on top of the watch.

 

The shiny black surface is a 1' square piece of black granite tile I picked up at the local hardware store for $7. I actually want to pick a black piece of ceramic tile and a white one as well, for the reflectivity they provide. The white will also act as an extra bounce surface as well. I just have't found 1' ceramic square tiles yet. I can see texture in the granite which kind of bugs me.

 

You can do the same thing with normal lights, which probably cheaper for most people. The concept is the same, just control the where the light actually falls. A major difference is the lights most people will use are tungsten light, which will give the image a yellow cast when using a camera on auto white balance. Flashes are daylight balanced, you don't get a colorcast unless you add a gel. Normal light also get kind of hot when you're working aroung them. Most DSLR's have color balance presets, just pick the tungsten one and you're good. You can also set a manual white balance, check your instruction manual for the way to do this with your camera.

[Luthier 1]

Great tutorial, many thanks!!!