Photography tips

I’ve been posting some of my studio photos of my watches and getting a lot of really nice comments… and questions!

So I thought I’d write a post about my method - including tips on how you can get the same or similar effects without much kit and using a phone camera.

Firstly let me say that while watch photography is new to me, photography is not and nor is set piece studio photography/l. Usually I’m taking photos of 1:24 scale cars that I build (you can see them here www.bc4fmodels.com)

Many of the techniques are similar I am finding so here goes.

1. For the background use a large piece of cardboard or paper and curve it gently against a wall or heavy object. You don’t want lines / horizons.

2. You want highly diffused light source(s). I have studio lights on boom arm tripods - but honestly a table lamp will do, tape some tracing paper over the front NOT TOUCHING A HOT BULB THOUGH.

3. Get the light source as close to the watch as you can, just out of frame if the shot you are taking, ideally you can adjust / dim the light source. This is my set up.

A tricky part of watches is the reflection off the glass so you have to play with angles. Normally I use a tripod to shoot but I’m finding with watches I need to move the camera around to ensure no reflection of light and me…

4. Which leads me to my next point - wear black gloves! I’m telling you I have had to redo whole shoots because I can see my fingers reflected on the bezel.

5. A really important one - SHOOT IN THE DARK. There should be no other light source in the room other than what you are directing at the watch.

6. Play around with the position of the watch and camera but try and shoot from as low as possible, not down onto the watch. Do that too, but the best shots are where you are down at the same level as the watch.

7. Depth of field is important, you want to shoot so that you get depth, not have everything in focus.

8. Most phones have a basic ability to edit photos - use it. I use Lightroom to up the blacks and focus on the image with light,

It’s easy to do the same. And it’s not cheating. The camera usually takes a pretty flat image. So it worth spending time to fix it up a bit.

9. Good kit is not essential, but for the record I shoot a Canon R5 and use a 35mm prime macro lens

10. I don’t use flash or light boxes. Light boxes have too much uniform light for my taste and it’s all about shadows and light playing off each other. Flash doesn’t give me enough control of the light / shadow

If you do all that you’ll come up with some killer images/ here are a few I’ve taken recently.

Please share any other tips and tricks you all have here,I’m learning everyday and finding watch photography hard but fun.