2 Fun 2 Macro

So some friends of mine are building a website to sell vintage watches and asked for some help with taking product shots. They gave me a few watches to try out and I figured I'd share the results with you all because no one in my family understands.

My intent was to do something clean and professional that wasn't on a white background. I'm still working out the lighting and the angles but I feel like I'm on the right track.

Settings! (for all the camera perverts... I see you)

Canon 5D MK II

100mm F2.8 Macro

1/125 @ f8.0

ISO 100

2 Godox AD200 Strobes

2 24" soft boxes

Key 1/8 power, Fill 1/16

Reply
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Looks great, only thought is to use black mat instead of grey. Heightens the contrast and colorways.... good luck with the site

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I’d say you’re on the right track 👍🏻 Two points: try and even out the lighting (you’ve got a bit too much on the right hand side and too little on the bottom) and remember it’s about the watch, not the artful interplay of wood and grey :) It certainly looks nice, but the % of space the watch case now occupies in the pictures is (too) small imho. Oh, and last one: when the watch is lying flat, put some weights on the ends so it will lie really flat, and you’ll lose the shadows underneath. Good luck!

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Cdn_4watches

Looks great, only thought is to use black mat instead of grey. Heightens the contrast and colorways.... good luck with the site

I think I'm going to darken the liner in post. It's naturally that light grey color. It shouldn't be too hard though!

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Icarium

I’d say you’re on the right track 👍🏻 Two points: try and even out the lighting (you’ve got a bit too much on the right hand side and too little on the bottom) and remember it’s about the watch, not the artful interplay of wood and grey :) It certainly looks nice, but the % of space the watch case now occupies in the pictures is (too) small imho. Oh, and last one: when the watch is lying flat, put some weights on the ends so it will lie really flat, and you’ll lose the shadows underneath. Good luck!

The next time I shoot I'm going to add bounce cards to fill the shadows. My challenge is shooting though domed crystals (like the Accutron) in a way you can still see the dial. I might also try a grid over the softbox to cut reflections. The weights is also a great idea 🤝

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Jesabater

The next time I shoot I'm going to add bounce cards to fill the shadows. My challenge is shooting though domed crystals (like the Accutron) in a way you can still see the dial. I might also try a grid over the softbox to cut reflections. The weights is also a great idea 🤝

Sound ideas. Good luck! Seems simple, but watches with all their reflective surfaces and especially, as you mentioned, that darn dome are very hard to photograph. 80 - 90% right is readily doable with a bit of effort, but getting that last 10% right…can take hours, days or even weeks!