Reply With QuoteLimited equipment, only a phone camera - then lighting is important - natural lighting - take your shots outside in good even lighting and watch how it falls on the subject and experiment
In my short time here I've seen amazing shots from quite a few of you so am hopeful a few tips might be forthcoming. I've done a search of the forum and found a few resources which have been some help but don't directly deal with my question.
Does anyone have some easy and simple rules/tips for taking reasonable shots using just a phone camera? I don't have a tripod or specialised lighting (though could be pursuaded to buy if considered essential). I'm aware good photographers can often do amazing things with little or no equipment, so what should I know?
TIA
Limited equipment, only a phone camera - then lighting is important - natural lighting - take your shots outside in good even lighting and watch how it falls on the subject and experiment
A lightbox will help a lot - search on ebay for a cheapy one to begin with. Others will recommend a good enough cheap lighting solution.
The other tip - spend a good 10 minutes cleaning the watch and handling with gloves before snapping. You'd be surprised how much muck shows up on camera.....
Thanks both.
I should have also asked, what is the go to for image hosting these days?
With the demise of Photobucket (or should i say their greed!) a lot of people went to Imgur. I use it, and find it very easy to use.Originally Posted by WTRacer
Or if you use the tapatalk app then no hosting required.
Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk
I use Postimage.org, very easy to use. Always crop your photo, you don't need a big long arm in shot.
I read somewhere that setting the time at 10:10 when taking watch photos is a good idea in that doing so provides balance to the image.
Here is one taken this evening (you can see what time I took it) on my phone on a black glass table top. For the better pictures I use a DSLR and macro lens - but phone cams are getting really good these days.
Make sure to take with steady hand
i use paid platform smugmug.com not much per year and has unlimited storage and backup - and now auto syncs with iOS if you want extra backup security.
Martyn
Last edited by MartynJC (UK); 21st January 2020 at 00:24.
Don't take the pic too close to avoid the watch looking disproportionately large on the wrist. A more distant shot then cropped works much better.
Last weekend I rigged up this simple lighting set-up in less than 15 minutes comprising a domestic table lamp (I used an Anglepoise lamp but any budget price swan neck desk lamp would suffice ) , home made diffuser (tracing paper / card mount), half a cardboard box lined with crumpled aluminium kitchen foil (using the matt side … not the polished high reflective side)
The set-up could be easily modified for watch photography e.g. place the watch on a small sheet of glass supported by two small boxes or wooden blocks … and with any suitable colour background under the glass . Or use any preferred colour background without the glass table. If no table lamp available use a similar box reflector next to a window. Any colour cast can be corrected in post processing.
The tripod heads visible in the set-up are just convenient supports for the diffuser … any suitable supports will suffice to keep the diffuser upright
My camera is set up on a copy stand but if hand-holding a smart phone it's sufficient to use e.g. a dining chair … one knee on the seat with forearms supported by the chair back
Supporting the watch on a miniature glass table will make it appear to 'float' above the out of focus background … but beware of dust showing on the glass in the completed image … brush off any dust or use a can of compressed air to blow it off . Glass needs to be spotless - so wash and dry carefully before use.
There are several free phone apps for processing smart phone pics e.g. Snapseed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCOlVPLP9Xw
When I have a spare half hour I'll use this set-up for a watch photo and post more details in this thread
dunk
Last edited by sundial; 21st January 2020 at 12:04.
"Well they would say that ... wouldn't they!"
Thanks for the further replies. Sundial, I like your style. Might have tried similar but ordered a cheapy lightbox yesterday, will see how that works out and perhaps post some of my efforts for critique/laughter.
Remember the lightbox acts as a diffuser - play with placement of a simple light source to see how things go. Good luck!
Had a play around with a variety of positions and lighting though not yet got my hands on the lightbox. Have to say I got a little frustrated with my efforts, and the fact that I hadn't aligned the bezel, nor noticed just how dirty the watch was. I was expecting it to be clean given it's just back from a service where it was supposedly given a bath.
That said, 23 years on and totally original/unpolished, it still looks good to me if a little ordinary to many.
For your amusement and critique:
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