# Help And Advice Please



## stonedeaf (Dec 3, 2008)

Hi all, I'm a new member of the Forum and despite being quite an experienced photographer of live music and sports am finding myself all at sea with trying to photograph watches.

I find it very difficult to get rid of reflections unless I move the watch so much you can't see it squarely.

I attach a couple of my better shots but they still leave much to be desired in my view to get them up to standard and I have had to spend a lot of time on them in Photoshop which seems out of proportion

Despite my best efforts at cleaning every scratch and bit of dust assume monumental proportions.

The usual rules of exposing for the highlights just don't seem to work and the dynamic range involved seems huge.





































All advice gratefully received.


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## stonedeaf (Dec 3, 2008)

Sorry, I should have added this pic to my previous post










You can see the highlights are burnt out but if I underexpose to compensate the image becomes too dark to 'rescue' without it appearing terribly contrasty :wallbash: :wallbash:

By the way the strap on this watch is dark brown and the background is Grey but I cannot get the colour balance to show this!!


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

Thereâ€™s nowt wrong with your pictures really, they show the content well, unless you want â€œpromotionalâ€ quality shots of your watches. Most people on the forum donâ€™t expect that kind of â€œqualityâ€.

Looking at your pictures Iâ€™d suspect your lights are too close to your light tent, or probably not properly diffused.

It doesnâ€™t worry me too much (these days), I can see the detail you want to capture and your watches look very nice to me. 

An old white T- shirt can be useful for an infestation of hot- spots.


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## Boxbrownie (Aug 11, 2005)

What Stan said more or less.....looks like your using direct light from a point source without diffusion...try two lamps softened down with some muslin or greaseproof paper.....be careful with the heat of the lamps of course!

You could try the old trick of using a white opaque plastic waste bucket with a hole cut in it, use it as a mini studio, place the watch inside light it from outside and shoot through the hole...sounds basic (and it is) but its a good starting point for (almost) effortless decent macro lighting.


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## Phil Wareham (Dec 13, 2009)

Boxbrownie said:


> What Stan said more or less.....looks like your using direct light from a point source without diffusion...try two lamps softened down with some muslin or greaseproof paper.....be careful with the heat of the lamps of course!
> 
> You could try the old trick of using a white opaque plastic waste bucket with a hole cut in it, use it as a mini studio, place the watch inside light it from outside and shoot through the hole...sounds basic (and it is) but its a good starting point for (almost) effortless decent macro lighting.


I know this is old, but try a polarising filter. I once borrowed a library book about photographic lighting and they dealt with pretty much the same point. But I can't remember what the book was called!


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