Some of the biggest logistical problems have to do with avoiding reflections. Sure, reflections can be used very well creatively — but not when it comes to product imagery typically. If you’re photographing watches, then this is something you always want to avoid. So we’re going to let you know a few secrets around how to shoot bette watch photos. Oh, and we’re also telling you all about our favorite gear for it too.
This article is presented in partnership with LUMIX.
Table of Contents
The Gear We’re Using for Better Watch Photos
To do this, we’re using some really specific gear:
- LUMIX S5II: We’re using this camera specifically because of the fact that it boasts a full-frame sensor and it lets photographers use Real Time LUT. We set the camera up with a film look and drew inspiration from vintage watch ads in print magazines. If those ads weren’t shot on medium format film, they were surely shot on 35mm film. The 24MP full-frame sensor in this camera gets us really close.
- LUMIX 100mm f2.8: This is, by far, the smallest and fastest focusing lens of this type from any brand that we’ve tested. And trust us, that’s saying something. You get a true 1:1 macro focusing ability, weather resistance, and it’s really small. In fact, the dimensions and weight is akin to LUMIX’s f1.8 primes. So yes, that means it’s around the size of an 85mm f1.8 or a 50mm f1.8 lens.
- Profoto B10: This is our favorite light. Whenever a flash pops, it’s like magic has just happened. The camera’s shutter might as well say “abracadabra” when it fires. The pure sharpness of a flash can’t be matched by constant lighting and it leans more into the idea of seeing instead of looking. That means we need to use our imagination. If the image isn’t what we want it to be, we then actively need to take measures to get it there before shooting another frame. We paired this strobe with an umbrella.
Light Like It’s Cinema
Yes, we’re using a strobe to light this, but there is an important standard to follow here. Some of the absolute best cinematographers in the world enter a prodcution stage, turn off all the lights, and add a single light at a time to the scene. They then observe how that light affects the scene, and modify it as needed. Add more light, modifiers, reflectors, etc. until you get the look and effect that you want.
In this situation, we’re drawing inspiration from other visual media. You can browse eBay for these looks, or check out lifestyle photography around. Otherwise, one of the best places that we’re drawing inspiration from poetry. Check out some poetry online about wrist watches and come up with your creative idea. This will be an incredible exercise in having your technical and artistic sides talk to one another.
For this shoot, we loaded up some LUTS on the LUMIX S5II that looked like vintage slide film. For a bit more consistency, we also locked the white balance to 5500K and sometimes adjusted from there. Treat it like a portrait: take the watch as a specific color and then use two other main colors in the scene to keep it simple.
Pro Tip: setting the watch to 10:10 usually makes people interact with it more often than not.
Control Everything
Here’s the important part: controlling everything in the scene. Watches have a reflective crystal — so you need to work to minimize this reflection so you can see the face very clearly. That means that you’ll need to tweak the angle of the camera and the lighting accordingly. Generally speaking, don’t make the light too high up. In fact, don’t lift it above a 45 degree angle. Instead have it 30 degrees or lower.
We also recommend the lens hood for the 100mm f2.8. In fact, the LUMIX 100mm f2.8 was purposely designed to minimize reflections. The text on the front of the lens is a dark gray — which was chosen specifically because it doesn’t reflect as much as white text. In fact, we had zero reflection problems with this lens when using it.
Sometimes having the modelling lamp on your light can help because you can then get a preview of how the light will fall on the back of your LUMIX S5II. The important thing here too is to stop the lens down. You’re using a 100mm Macro, so stop it down to at least f5.6. The closer in that you focus, the less of the scene will be in focus at a given aperture compared to more normal focusing ranges. That’s just how depth of field works. You could do this handheld thanks to the S5II’x exceptional image stabilizaton. In genreal though, we still recommend that you shoot at at least 1/125th to comepnsate extra. Also keep your ISO down low.
Of course, those are recommendations and we don’t want to stifle creativiity. Always remember that the slower your shutter speed is, the more ambient lighting will be let into the scene. That can be a good thing depending on what your artistic vision calls for.
Autofocus at Macro ranges is also typically kind of slow. But with the LUMIX 100mm f2.8, we’re surprised at how quick it is. The S5II’s autofocus settings also have great options like AF-Scope. The camera magnifies an area and tries to focus in on a very specific spot. It’s excellent for macro features. Note that if you keep your camera in AF-C mode the way we do, it will temporarily switch the S5II into AF-S.
Use these tips to shoot beautiful watch photos, and you’ll be really happy with the results you get.