Watch me :)

brvheart · August 18, 2009

Here are a few images of one of my favorite time pieces - CC welcomed

black mamba · August 18, 2009

Well....there's good and bad here. I like Breitlings....got several myself....so your subject matter is first class. The pictures, however, are not of the same quality. They are generally washed out and, in fact, in certain areas are blown out rather badly. At least that's how they look on my monitor. I think also that a greater DOF would be called for here....but that's purely a personal choice. I'd try these shots again as I think your approach is fine.

Tom

brvheart · August 18, 2009

Ouch

Dogdots · August 18, 2009

I don't know this brand of watch since I'm a Timex person

The watch is really clear and sharp in the photos in my opinion, but the background...well I think it could be something alittle different. Something that blends well into the background.

brvheart · August 18, 2009

It is a Brietling, it has a rich aviation history. They put out a "Chronolog" every year which is the book of all of their watches - this is what it is sitting on. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

Dogdots · August 18, 2009

brvheart wrote:

It is a Brietling, it has a rich aviation history. They put out a "Chronolog" every year which is the book of all of their watches - this is what it is sitting on. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

Still seems like a good idea. Try different ways of setting the watch on the book.

Sounds like a much better watch then a Timex

DaddyO · August 18, 2009

black mamba wrote:

Well....there's good and bad here. I like Breitlings....got several myself....so your subject matter is first class. The pictures, however, are not of the same quality. They are generally washed out and, in fact, in certain areas are blown out rather badly. At least that's how they look on my monitor. I think also that a greater DOF would be called for here....but that's purely a personal choice. I'd try these shots again as I think your approach is fine.

Tom

Ouch is good. I saw same as described by Tom. No doubt you see
it too. No big deal other than dialing it in a tad better. You got some nice
angles going on.

brvheart · August 18, 2009

well, since these were taken with my F100FD a while ago (I found them when switching to mug as my photo site and posted) and I now have a decent DSLR, maybe I should set out to shoot this beauty again. The angles will be hard to replicate I think, if I knew how to do take a few shots with different exposure (I think that it is called bracketing or something - still new to this) I would take one and process the images in CS3 with HDR - thing is I just dont know if my camera will do that and how to do that with the camera if it will in fact do it

Thanks for the CC - I will try to do better and not blow out next time.

Dogdots · August 18, 2009

brvheart wrote:

well, since these were taken with my F100FD a while ago (I found them when switching to mug as my photo site and posted) and I now have a decent DSLR, maybe I should set out to shoot this beauty again. The angles will be hard to replicate I think, if I knew how to do take a few shots with different exposure (I think that it is called bracketing or something - still new to this) I would take one and process the images in CS3 with HDR - thing is I just dont know if my camera will do that and how to do that with the camera if it will in fact do it

Thanks for the CC - I will try to do better and not blow out next time.

I'm sure your camera's manual will tell you how to bracket. I didn't check to see if you posted what kind of camera your using. This would look good in an HDR photo.

Since I don't have a flash other then what's on my camera I diffuse my flash with a piece of paper..sometimes a baseball cap and even my finger. Depends on whatever I have near me at the time. Probably not the best thing to do, but it stops the blowout effect.

You should be able to duplicate your set up I would think as long as you have the watch, book and the photos to look off of. If you don't have the book...maybe an aviation map would work.

Good luck -- Have fun -- Can't wait to see your next photos

SLRdude · August 22, 2009

I'm a watch man myself and this is what got me into photography.
It's pretty much the only kind of photography I am half way decent at lol.

I'll come back to this in a bit when I have more time.

SLRdude · August 22, 2009

brvheart wrote:

It is a Brietling, it has a rich aviation history. They put out a "Chronolog" every year which is the book of all of their watches - this is what it is sitting on. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

It is not a bad idea.
I shot this one with the watch on the Chronolog.

brvheart · August 22, 2009

SLRdude wrote:

It is not a bad idea.
I shot this one with the watch on the Chronolog.

what camera/lens and exif info please

and very nice shot!!

SLRdude · August 22, 2009

I have no clue man.
The camera was a D50 for sure, and the lens was either the plastic 18-55 kit lens or the cheapest 50mm macro I could find, a 300 dollars Quantaray lens.

You know what... I took this in Feb 2006 and I am pretty sure all I had at the time was an antique Canon G2. And that's probably what I shot it with. I bought the D50 in March I think.

black mamba · August 23, 2009

That's a far superior shot than the first ones posted. Good composition and very good use of their catalog....excellent focus and exposure of the watch too. Nicely done.

Tom

SLRdude · August 25, 2009

black mamba wrote:

That's a far superior shot than the first ones posted. Good composition and very good use of their catalog....excellent focus and exposure of the watch too. Nicely done.

Tom

Thank you Tom.

My apology to the original poster for the hijack. It was not intended that way.

thumb

SLRdude · August 25, 2009

Here are some ideas, in a very very random order. (I was writing them as they came to my mind)

A macro lens is not a must.
Any one of those shots can be taken with a 55 mm cheap kit lens, and if you really want to have that close up look, just crop. I'm sure you have enough megapixels for that. :-)

First thing you need to work on is light. Watches are a pain in the butt to photograph. All those curved surfaces reflect light like CRAZY.
To control that, best thing to do is buy or make a lightbox.

I use one made by American Recorder, which sells for about 60 bucks on amazon including lights.

You can always make your own from a white cloth on a wire frame or just a white trash can. Just add lights. :-)

The key here is to diffuse the light. Some like very strong lights and short exposure, some go for less light and longer exposure. I tend to be somewhere in the middle. Some of my shots are as much as 5 seconds exposure. (I usually pull the crown out to make the second hand stop then push it back in Photoshop)

Get a tripod if you don't have one. I use a cheap 20 dollar table top one I bought at Wolf camera. Works like a charm!

Use the remote or timed release so you do not shake the watch.

At that distance, your DOF is close to nothing, so use high F numbers. I do as much as f/18 to get the whole thing in focus. However, with no macro lens, you can probably do f/8 just fine.

Look along the lens before you take the shot. The viewfinder is OK, but too small to get a good look at your watch. Whatever crazy reflections you see... the lens will see twice as good and it will be blown out.

Reflections in the watch crystal. Again, look along the lens and see what the camera will see. Reposition things or hold a white paper while the shot is being taken to counter the reflections.

I even gone as far as taking a black tshirt and put a hole in it for the lens to avoid seeing the camera body in the watch!

Composition.
Don't go for more than 2... maybe 3 at most elements in your picture. Be careful when you position things so they do not steal the spotlight from your watch. Make it clear that it is a prop and not the subject. Either use them to draw the eye to the watch, or use them as a backdrop element.

Rule of thirds works here too, so keep that in mind as well. That's where you want the watch to be.

This one is a pain in the arse to deal with (at least for me because I am lazy) but place the watch hands at 10:08:37. It is symmetric and it makes the watch smile. It also appears like a chevron, a check mark. A sign of approval. You can look at my pics and you can clearly see that the ones where the hands are NOT at 10:08 just do not look as good.

Crown has to point UP. Making the crown point down makes the watch look unbalanced and heavy on that side. Never a good look.

Try some of those things, and see what you get. Feel free to ask for more ideas or I will send you things as I remember them.

Watch me :)

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