Not good with photos.. start here...

[Daytona4me]

I think newer members are sometimes reluctant to post photos of their replicas because of the extremely high quality of other members photos that are posted in wrist checks and other show off areas.

I am not great with a camera, I do not know Photoshop (PS) and overall, my photo skills suck.

I was able to drastically improve the way my photos looked by simply getting familiar with my camera a little bit. Like most men, we break open the box to our new camera (or receiver, or computer, or whatever else) and we pitch the owners manual in the junk drawer and start snapping pictures on the Automatic setting.

Fight the trend fellas, go brush off that owners manual and begin to understand how your camera works! What do these crazy settings mean, what do they do, what does it look like after you change the settings.. you have to experiment! Have some fun!!

Ok, I still know squat about my camera, but I now know a little more to get me by until I am more patient and not wanting to do yard work! lol

Go and get yourself a small light tent from Walmart or eBay. My wife surprised me with my light tent that she bought from Walmart. It came with 2 lights and a tripod.. Oh yeah... You MUST have a tripod. Just get yourself a little one that can sit on the table. They are 4-6 inches tall.

People will tell you that you dont have to buy a light tent.. that is true, I just found it a lot easier.. that's all..

Pugwash has some tutorials on this stuff which is great. I wont even touch polarized lenses and photoshop or gimp use.. I dont have a clue..

My point is to encourage people to have some fun, dont get bogged down trying to doctor up your photos until you can simply get a photo to work with,, then start looking at the software to make them By-Tor'ish..

This is really easy, I promise you will improve the look of your photos 500% with just a couple simple steps, plus... You will have a blast doing it!

Here is my setup.. It's pretty simple,, a couple lamps that I purchased on clearance from Office Depot.

I was taking photo's of this:

Good Luck... hope to see some new participants in wrist shots and the "My Collection" area..

[dvn]

Beautiful pictures G.

I'll have to get myself one of those light tent from walmart. Where do you buy those watch stands?

[Daytona4me]

Beautiful pictures G.

I'll have to get myself one of those light tent from walmart. Where do you buy those watch stands?

I went to my local shopping mall. I walked into JC Penny after trying 5 other jewelry shops and being turned down...

I asked the lady at the counter if she had 2 that she could spare, I explained that I was doing photography for a write up on the quality of watches today and that I was a blogger on the internet and it is a hobby of mine. She gave me 2 and told me to come back anytime as they have so many.. they have to throw them away after a couple months.

[freddy333]

Great post, Daytona.

Also, alot of beginners do not realize that for every picture posted the photographer may have had to shoot many shots just to get that 1 right shot. Sometimes you need to shoot multiple shots to get the composition correct (though you can modify the composition somewhat by cropping the original in a photo editor) or you may not like the lighting or shadows or you may need to change the perspective or focus or whatever. The point is that very few people are able to snap pictures like By-Tor or Pugwash in a single take with a point-and-shoot camera set on Auto. On the other hand, you do not need a super camera to take super pictures. A good photographer can produce much more compelling pictures with a cheap 3-4 Megapixel point-and-shoot (set on Manual) than a bad picture taker can with the world's most sophisticated professional camera.

Anyone looking for a good, inexpensive lighting system might check out the Lowel ego (click the pic to go to the site)

Or you can make a basic light box out of a white translucent plastic kitchen trash container. Lay the container on its side & place 50 watt lights in inch or two away from each exposed side pointing directly at the container. Place the watch or object inside the container & set your camera tripod up right outside the opening & shoot. Cheap & very effective.

[By-Tor]

Looks like a good box d4me! Very nice photos too.

All best watch photographs have been Photoshopped. If a "hotshot" photographer claims that his pictures are "untouched", he's lying to his teeth. However, there isn't a lot to do when you get the lighting correct. Usually I take off small dust spots off and alter the contrast/brightness levels. Though I have done some heavy PS work too... but those are more PS compositions than actual photos.

Some watches are more challenging to shoot than others. Taking decent photos is easy, but when you want to go to the next level you need more work and practice. Usually "decent" photos have noise and lacking details, like the bracelet brushed areas and such. Getting technically decent photo is easy, but a great photo is much more difficult. It's all about the light exposure.

More light is always better than less. There is a fine line between correct light exposure and exposure that goes overboard. Finding that balance is difficult. And yeah, I usually take about 10 pictures of the same setup, and I get roughty 1 acceptable one. When I started, the ratio was 100/1.

And yeah, camera doesn't mean much. It's the lighting, lighting and once again lighting. Expensive camera won't make your photos any better, if you don't accept this fact. Then you need to have "eye" for the post-processing with PS. That's it.

It's very enjoyable to get a good watch photograph. I highly recommend getting into it, it's fun.

[Daytona4me]

Thanks for the compliments guys..

If I had to pick just 1 item that is a must have, that would be a little tripod... you cannot live without it IMO. The settings you make to your camera to pull in all the light also make it subject to blurring even with the steadiest of hands. Then.. you think it looks good in the 2.5 LCD on the camera and then you put it on your computer.. and ... well... not so great..lol...

I've been pretty happy with my Sony DSC-H7. You can get some really good deals on it if you shop around. It has a large menu with tons of options.

Click on the image to read the expert review on the camera.

[rodwc]

I thought that was a good post.

Without experience and looking at all the excellent pics. really does deter a lot of folks.

What this post does , IMHO , is to try and give confidence to any beginer to have a go,

IT DOESN`T MATTER WHAT THE RESULT IS, the main thing is to have a try. ( no one will laugh at you.... I promise )

Like the old saying, the lord helps those that try to help themselves.

I am absolutely certain that ANY experienced photographer here would help any member try to improve, once they have had a try for themselves.

Also there are great tutorials by Pugwash in the photography section, .........easy to understand as well.

[Pugwash]

Excellent post. Everyone should give it a go.

Pugwash has some tutorials on this stuff which is great. I wont even touch polarized lenses and photoshop or gimp use.. I dont have a clue..

I don't have a polariser for my new camera and I've not used my old one for a while. For me, it was more a tool that I used until I no longer needed it.

All best watch photographs have been Photoshopped. If a "hotshot" photographer claims that his pictures are "untouched", he's lying to his teeth. However, there isn't a lot to do when you get the lighting correct. Usually I take off small dust spots off and alter the contrast/brightness levels. Though I have done some heavy PS work too... but those are more PS compositions than actual photos.

Agreed. You really should dip your toes in Photoshop. It's true that you should do as much as physically possible in the lens and not the computer, but every studio-quality shot you'll see has been shopped.

For instance, this one is actually two photographs composited. I took the same photos at three exposures and the background (the ice on the tray) is taken from the lower exposure. I didn't use anything from the higher one. While blending the two layers gave me the effect I was after, a hideous amount of shopping was required to get the image I wanted.

This was what came off the memory card:

[Stephane]

Great idea D4Me to encourage new comers or older members to post their photos.

I would add that as long as the photo is not blury, and the watch can be seen, what the community want to see is ...a photo

For sure, we have some real great photographer here (Pug, BT, Bazz, Pix,...to name only a few) but nobody expect every single photo to be a piece of art!

[rodwc]

I think with 9 replies on this topic, everyone here knows exactly what to do.

Or is too frightened to ask.

I can understand any posters feelings when this happens.

Maybe the subject heading should have been, " who takes steroids"?

Then there may have been 99 replies, and in the top ten for 9 days or so.