The importance of perspective in photography
When browsing Facebook groups, Reddit and WatchCrunch I often find posts from people trying to decide whether or not a wristwatch is really for them. Usually, it boils down to the size of the watch in relation to the size of their wrist.
If you're in this situation yourself, I suggest trying to take multiple pictures from different angles and distances, the distance between your camera and your wrist/watch can drastically change how big or small a watch might seem.
As a rule of thumb, the closer your camera is to the watch, the larger it will look!
Remember: when you look at your watch in real life, the distance between your watch and your eyes is usually much further compared to the distance from your watch to your camera/phone when taking a casual wrist-shot.
The distance between your watch and other people is significantly further compared to the distance between your watch and your own eyes, thus making your watch appear even smaller from other people's perspective compared to your own.
The first photo in this post is just for attention, it's taken with a very capable mirrorless camera and a cheap but excellent portrait lens.
The two other photos are meant to be examples of what this post is about. They're taken with my phone, using the same lens, at the same location, under the same lighting, same watch on the same wrist, just seconds apart.
The first example is taken much further away than the second example, that's the only difference. I have cropped the photo in the first example so the watch takes up roughly the same amount of space in the frame as it does in the second example.
The watch looks much larger in the second example, it looks more like a contemporary sports-watch compared to the more classic dress-watch look of the first example.
These two example photos might be a bit extreme but they demonstrate just how drastic the difference can be.
TLDR:
If you think your watch looks too large in your wrist-shots, try taking the photo from further away and cropping in, use a longer lens or experiment with a mirror-selfie! All these things can help reduce the perceived size of the watch in your photos.
I'm sure a lot of you already knew all this, but I hope it will be useful for at least someone out there.
I apologize if the post was a bit hard to follow at times, I generally don't make longer posts like this.
Not really sure what to type here. Just another watchnerd exploring and learning about watches. Besides spending way too much money on watches, I also like spending way too much money on photography e...
100% agree - excellent example photos.
I also think photos using a mirror, or taken from someone else’s point of view help in the same way.
100% agree - excellent example photos.
I also think photos using a mirror, or taken from someone else’s point of view help in the same way.
Thank you so much!
And yes, I totally agree!
Agree with this. I found that a good check is that if you're in front of a sizable (preferably full body) mirror in the boutique, cross the arm with the watch on it, over your chest and touch your other shoulder. I've found that how the watch looks on your wrist and then compared to the rest of your body will give you a good sense of proportion and is basically how people are going to look at it, on you.
Agree with this. I found that a good check is that if you're in front of a sizable (preferably full body) mirror in the boutique, cross the arm with the watch on it, over your chest and touch your other shoulder. I've found that how the watch looks on your wrist and then compared to the rest of your body will give you a good sense of proportion and is basically how people are going to look at it, on you.
Yes!
I always do this exact thing when trying watches!
G-Shock used to use nice indirect methods of photographing their watches — a photo of someone browsing records, watch on wrist, someone riding a bike etc etc. Whilst not a ‘beauty shot’ for the watch itself, it was a good way of showing the watch as well as selling a look or lifestyle alongside. Often there was a close up superimposed if it was a full ad, but their Insta in Japan used to be much more of that ‘this is about the watch, even if it isn’t’ approach, which I think helped sell what might seem ‘big’ watches to people who might worry about how that worked for them.
Agree with this. I found that a good check is that if you're in front of a sizable (preferably full body) mirror in the boutique, cross the arm with the watch on it, over your chest and touch your other shoulder. I've found that how the watch looks on your wrist and then compared to the rest of your body will give you a good sense of proportion and is basically how people are going to look at it, on you.
I’ve posted these on a separate post of mine but found it relatable here. I used this method without knowing it was a thing 😅 but I felt this gave a truer representation of what it wears like. I was always a bit unsure about the size of my SMP because it looked massive in my photos before.
The issue I’ve been having is that my pictures make the watch look bigger on my wrist that it actually appears in real life. I for one was not aware it had to do with camera distance. I’ve been taking pictures from too close in an effort to show more detail on the watch.
Maybe advertisers use this for evil, but to me the problem is I want my pictures to accurately portray how the watch looks on my wrist and at times they don’t. So it’s not about fooling anybody, quite the opposite.
Lens choice does make a difference. In 35mm format (the most common reference) anything:
Less than 50mm will result in barrel distortion of an image.
Greater than 100mm will result in pin cushion distortion of an image.
The distortion effect is greater when the (<50mm) lens is closer to a subject. Use your default camera phone lens to take a selfie close to your face and do the same with it further away as an example. It possible to negate this effect by cropping to the centre of the image (and being further away as you said) but there the ‘penalty’ of loss of pixels/‘image quality’/detail.
‘Traditional’ photographic portraiture uses a 75-105mm lens. I believe a 50mm lens most closely resembles the human eye
Brilliant! I've been trying on different Santos anytime I get the chance and EVERY single one of them looks good on me! I'm not humble-bragging, because I haven't brought one home, yet - but I realize I need to adjust my perspective when trying them on for size.
Thank you for the write-up.
For crummy cell phone shots, zooming out can help. I'm sure it crappifies image quality a tad, but it gets the scale better.
However, I think there is still a good chance that many people's watches are just too big.