# A Few Attempts During The Holidays



## born t (May 8, 2005)

I think this is my first post on this forum. I shot a few pictures during the holidays using many techniques that I had never tried before, and thought I should share them with you here.

The first one, the VC, despite looking like being taken in a light tent, was actually shot on a window ledge, with no supplementary lighting. I put the watch on a black stand and used a piece of black cloth as the background. The camera was set to full manual, in jpeg mode. What I found particularly effective was the use of the watch's dial itself as the reference surface for the white balance setting, rather than a sheet of white paper or grey card; the result was pretty much spot on. I was also surprised at how well the black stand and black background blended together in the final result.










The following was done at night, on my bed, again without a light tent. In addition to the piece of black cloth that I used as the background, I used a leather camera pouch to add texture to the foreground. I also used two ordinary desk lamps in addition to the ceiling lamp to illuminate the watches. I found that using only two lamps made taking the pictures quite difficult, as the light was not well distributed; and ideally I would have liked one more lamp and some muslin screens to diffuse the light, but I had to make do with I had.

The original size of each picture was about 3.7 x 10^6 pixels, which was the best my 5 year-old camera could do. No tripod was used in any of the pictures, as there was no space to put it. Overall, I think the results were not too bad. Any advice on how to improve my future shots is most welcome. And thank you for looking and reading this far!


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

Nice work Born, I love the Omega to bits. What a truly classy (non- fashion) watch.


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## stonedeaf (Dec 3, 2008)

born t said:


> I think this is my first post on this forum. I shot a few pictures during the holidays using many techniques that I had never tried before, and thought I should share them with you here.
> 
> The first one, the VC, despite looking like being taken in a light tent, was actually shot on a window ledge, with no supplementary lighting. I put the watch on a black stand and used a piece of black cloth as the background. The camera was set to full manual, in jpeg mode. What I found particularly effective was the use of the watch's dial itself as the reference surface for the white balance setting, rather than a sheet of white paper or grey card; the result was pretty much spot on. I was also surprised at how well the black stand and black background blended together in the final result.
> 
> ...


Fantastic shots - I can't get anywhere near that quality at all :wallbash:

Very well done :clap: :clap: :clap:


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## PaulBoy (Dec 2, 2007)

Fantastic shots :thumbsup: - The first one just needs a few stars & you'd think it was floating in space 

Paul


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## Nalu (Nov 28, 2003)

Born, really excellent watch photos shown here! It just goes to show that all one needs is some patience and attention to detail to get great results from a minimalist setup. No need to spend a shedload on a camera or accessories.


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## Andy Tims (Apr 13, 2008)

Great pictures.

The watches aren't too shabby either.


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## magnet (Mar 20, 2008)

Great shots of some great watches.

The VC is pure class


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