Advise needed for improving watch photography

[Bluebird33]

Hi guys, first post here in photography forum, a complete newbie to the world of photography as I started my company and need to take portraits of the watches I sell.

Bought a Canon Powershot S200 for $299 as recommended by TK FOTO at Funan and also a small white box for $49 for my photography sessions. Recently felt that wasn't enough, I set the camera to MACRO mode and shoot my product, sometimes there will be reflections and some parts very dark. Sometimes when I take photos, the pictures look a bit yellowish, then I have to take again. As these product pictures will be posted on my website for my customers to see and I'm selling luxury watches, I would want the highest quality photos for my customer's viewing pleasure.

Is my camera too lousy for what I need? What cameras do you guys recommend for my kind of photography? Budget can't exceed $1,200.

A sample of a recently taken picture, I realized that when i put the watch quite far inside the white box, and use the zoom function of the camera, it would look slightly more professional.

As I have just registered, seems like I cannot post links, so please bear with me and replace the [dot] with a full stop.

Pic of watch taken zoomed in. (looks a bit grainy, but more proper as the whole watch is more focused. looks more professional to me besides the grainy part)
i42.photobucket[dot]com/albums/e347/guolongx/IMG_0620_zpsbd696f3d.jpg

Pic of watch taken without zoom(holding the camera close to the watch.)
Seems like this will cause more reflections and the edges of the watch not that focused. only the dial is focused.
i42.photobucket[dot]com/albums/e347/guolongx/IMG_0616_zps2067e2d8.jpg

My wish would be to take something like this..(Taken from internet)
i42.photobucket[dot]com/albums/e347/guolongx/116234sunbeam_zpsf96497c6.jpg

As you can see, the third picture is the same watch as the first, but they can capture the beautiful reflective sunbeam dial, while in my picture, I only can capture lines on the dial.

Oh and also, I'll go Japan during CNY period, many of my friends say that buying camera in Japan will be cheaper, so probably going to buy there. My budget for my next camera cannot exceed S$1,200.

Thanks in advance for your advise!

 

[davidktw]

Unless DOF effect is what you are trying to accomplish, if not, you are doing it wrong.

First of all, get a DSLR or a camera which you can control the the aperture, shutter speed manually. You might need a polariser if you want to remove glare from the glass screen. Next, you will also require multiple light sources to lit your object and your background properly.

Meanwhile your background is under exposed. If you are trying to do a high key, you will need to over expose your backdrop, in this case your lightbox far end. One way in your case is to have 2 light sources placed inside the light box and flash against the backdrop, as much as possible.

To get exposed backdrop can also be accomplished with a longer exposure time, that is why you need manual control of your shutter speed.

Stop your aperture as much as possible to get most stuffs in focus and to get the best sharpness from the lens. Unless you have a OOF effect, then open up your aperture and also adjust by zooming in. Zooming in narrow down the DOF.

Ideally I would suggest you have 4 light sources and you must have a tripod for the whole exercise if you want good output.

Polariser in front of the lens will help to remove the on the glass, but ultimately how much glare you get is dependent on how you place your light sources. If you want no glare, place your light sources more than 45 degree from the tangent of the glass surface. Also take care not to have the light sources mostly bounce back at the camera lens.

The white lightbox will help to create the highlights on the reflective metal and glass of the subject, but you must adjust as accordingly.

 

[Bluebird33]

Unless DOF effect is what you are trying to accomplish, if not, you are doing it wrong.

First of all, get a DSLR or a camera which you can control the the aperture, shutter speed manually. You might need a polariser if you want to remove glare from the glass screen. Next, you will also require multiple light sources to lit your object and your background properly.

Meanwhile your background is under exposed. If you are trying to do a high key, you will need to over expose your backdrop, in this case your lightbox far end. One way in your case is to have 2 light sources placed inside the light box and flash against the backdrop, as much as possible.

To get exposed backdrop can also be accomplished with a longer exposure time, that is why you need manual control of your shutter speed.

Stop your aperture as much as possible to get most stuffs in focus and to get the best sharpness from the lens. Unless you have a OOF effect, then open up your aperture and also adjust by zooming in. Zooming in narrow down the DOF.

Ideally I would suggest you have 4 light sources and you must have a tripod for the whole exercise if you want good output.

Polariser in front of the lens will help to remove the on the glass, but ultimately how much glare you get is dependent on how you place your light sources. If you want no glare, place your light sources more than 45 degree from the tangent of the glass surface. Also take care not to have the light sources mostly bounce back at the camera lens.

The white lightbox will help to create the highlights on the reflective metal and glass of the subject, but you must adjust as accordingly.

Wow, sound like a lot of studying needed. I have googled some and slightly understood more about what you said.

I take my pictures in a very brightly lit room(4 diffused strong white LEDs on my ceilings), I think the picture is bright enough, only problem is the backdrop, I'll try placing small lamps inside the box and shine it on the background like you suggested.

Because my light source cannot be adjusted, I'll probably try adjusting the angle of tilt of the watch, and photograph it from slightly above. I'll get a tripod definitely. Now shooting freehand.. haha.

Your advise is much appreciated! Thanks!

Now do you have any recommendations on which DSLR camera to buy? Amazon has one at US$499, the Canon EOS T5 rebel. Do you think its a good camera?

 

[davidktw]

Wow, sound like a lot of studying needed. I have googled some and slightly understood more about what you said.

I take my pictures in a very brightly lit room(4 diffused strong white LEDs on my ceilings), I think the picture is bright enough, only problem is the backdrop, I'll try placing small lamps inside the box and shine it on the background like you suggested.

Because my light source cannot be adjusted, I'll probably try adjusting the angle of tilt of the watch, and photograph it from slightly above. I'll get a tripod definitely. Now shooting freehand.. haha.

Your advise is much appreciated! Thanks!

Now do you have any recommendations on which DSLR camera to buy? Amazon has one at US$499, the Canon EOS T5 rebel. Do you think its a good camera?

For studio purpose, to be frank, any DSLR will work. At f/8 even the most lousy lens will be sharp and crispy, unless it is faulty.

For product shoot, what is going to limit your creativity is the knowledge and also the amount of light sources and tools you have. I'm not the expert in this area, but I have done my little share of studio shots and also my own product shots on reflective objects.

Continuous light works different from a strobe. The amount of power that can be produce without a short period of time, typically in less than a fraction of a second from a flashlight or strobe is more powerful than a continuous light setup in equivalent. That is because with proper synchronisation at merely 60W and a fraction of a second, we are talking about an extreme amount of sudden exposure of light into the sensors in the camera. You will need to really flood out a lot of light from the continuous lightning system to be equivalent. I have tried DIV continuous light setup myself too, and learn thru it why strobe make sense. Read this http://photography.tutsplus.com/tut...-whats-the-better-choice-for-you--photo-14549

Without spending a lot, the Nikon Creative Light System using infra-red to synchronous several flash light in my opinion is one of the most affordable method. Within a confine room area, you will find simple infrared bouncing off the walls will be able to read from the master strobe to the slave strobes easily without those expensive solution using radio waves or so forth. Those works much better in outdoor areas.

If you are really going to do this for real and often, consider owning a few strobes. Nikon SB800 and above can act like a master. If you just need a master commander, use the SU800. Place your other slave strobes in other locations for coordinated flash.

If you want to not spend a lot and still able to test things out, go rent a studio who can also loan you studio flash at the same time. I have one to recommend you, no worries I'm not affiliated, just that I have use them before and find the owners are helpful and the cost is not high at all. You do need to bring your own camera and lens though.

For your purpose, I will say even the old Nikon D80 is more than enough, if you can get a 2nd hand to work with. I will PM you the contact of the studio I'm referring to.

Update:

For proper white balance, you need to adjust your digital camera white balance to the same temperature as the light sources if you want white background. One way is to let your camera pre-analyse it, by capturing with all the lights on for the photoshot against a 18% gray background. We call this the gray card. You can also post process this later, but if you want things out right, then do it right during your photoshoot.

One thing you are right, photography is not a simple subject. There are a lot of theories and practicals around it. Photography is not as simple as just depressing the shutter release as some people think that is the sole objective of a photographer. Lighting and composition is the reason why photographers are required, not a robot changing aperture and shutter speed or press buttons

 

[Bluebird33]

For studio purpose, to be frank, any DSLR will work. At f/8 even the most lousy lens will be sharp and crispy, unless it is faulty.

For product shoot, what is going to limit your creativity is the knowledge and also the amount of light sources and tools you have. I'm not the expert in this area, but I have done my little share of studio shots and also my own product shots on reflective objects.

Continuous light works different from a strobe. The amount of power that can be produce without a short period of time, typically in less than a fraction of a second from a flashlight or strobe is more powerful than a continuous light setup in equivalent. That is because with proper synchronisation at merely 60W and a fraction of a second, we are talking about an extreme amount of sudden exposure of light into the sensors in the camera. You will need to really flood out a lot of light from the continuous lightning system to be equivalent. I have tried DIV continuous light setup myself too, and learn thru it why strobe make sense. Read this Strobes or Continuous Lighting? What's the Better Choice for You - Tuts+ Photo & Video Tutorial

Without spending a lot, the Nikon Creative Light System using infra-red to synchronous several flash light in my opinion is one of the most affordable method. Within a confine room area, you will find simple infrared bouncing off the walls will be able to read from the master strobe to the slave strobes easily without those expensive solution using radio waves or so forth. Those works much better in outdoor areas.

If you are really going to do this for real and often, consider owning a few strobes. Nikon SB800 and above can act like a master. If you just need a master commander, use the SU800. Place your other slave strobes in other locations for coordinated flash.

If you want to not spend a lot and still able to test things out, go rent a studio who can also loan you studio flash at the same time. I have one to recommend you, no worries I'm not affiliated, just that I have use them before and find the owners are helpful and the cost is not high at all. You do need to bring your own camera and lens though.

For your purpose, I will say even the old Nikon D80 is more than enough, if you can get a 2nd hand to work with. I will PM you the contact of the studio I'm referring to.

Update:

For proper white balance, you need to adjust your digital camera white balance to the same temperature as the light sources if you want white background. One way is to let your camera pre-analyse it, by capturing with all the lights on for the photoshot against a 18% gray background. We call this the gray card. You can also post process this later, but if you want things out right, then do it right during your photoshoot.

One thing you are right, photography is not a simple subject. There are a lot of theories and practicals around it. Photography is not as simple as just depressing the shutter release as some people think that is the sole objective of a photographer. Lighting and composition is the reason why photographers are required, not a robot changing aperture and shutter speed or press buttons

Thanks for the valuable info man! Received your pm liao. slowly grasping the loads of information needed to take the perfect picture. I'll probably look around clubsnap market to search for a 2nd hand camera. Will read up on both the strobe lighting and the studio tomorrow. cheers!

 

[Crexzz]

if glamorous pictures are what you want, for online showcase purpose, i think you'll only need photo editing software /skills.

5cents

 

[Bluebird33]

if glamorous pictures are what you want, for online showcase purpose, i think you'll only need photo editing software /skills.

5cents

yeah, but how to take out reflections on the glass/ blurriness of the picture with just photo editing software? I always use auto contrast in photoshop to make the whites and black look more deep colored, making it have a bit of hi-def look..

 

[davidktw]

if glamorous pictures are what you want, for online showcase purpose, i think you'll only need photo editing software /skills.

5cents

More like your 5 cents is 0.00005 cents. Try photoshop a black scene and see if you will get anything out from it. Doing it right at the input level is always the proper and best approach to having great output. That's not to say photoshop skill is not required, but photoshop skill will not help you recover lost details and when you have glare on areas that are not suppose to be there, photoshop will do more harm than improvement.

 

[davidktw]

yeah, but how to take out reflections on the glass/ blurriness of the picture with just photo editing software? I always use auto contrast in photoshop to make the whites and black look more deep colored, making it have a bit of hi-def look..

Do it right from the beginning, it may sounds weird, but I can assure you will get much better quality if you do your lightning properly. You will spend your time getting things right instead of spend them correcting flaws in photoshop.

You can't get the kind of real light interaction that proper lightning setup offers compared to the patching technique in post processing.

 

[EJB]

Since you're selling luxury watches and not too clear in photography, why not hire a professional to do it. I'm sure the comms per watch you sell can cover the costs of hiring one.

 

[Bluebird33]

Too much hassle. Need to bring the watches down to studio, pay a lot of money per watch. I run a business, I'm looking for sustainable ways to do my business, not just spend money to do everything for me. Save what I can save to maximize profits.. You'll understand if you are a business owner.

after learning photography, I will not need to rely on people to take pictures of my products and will be self sustainable.

 

[EJB]

Too much hassle. Need to bring the watches down to studio, pay a lot of money per watch. I run a business, I'm looking for sustainable ways to do my business, not just spend money to do everything for me. Save what I can save to maximize profits.. You'll understand if you are a business owner.

after learning photography, I will not need to rely on people to take pictures of my products and will be self sustainable.

Sometimes, money cannot be saved.

There are professionals that can go down to your shop to shoot instead.

Learning is good, but what you need is proper lighting, just a lightbox is not sufficient. Lighting is another skillset required for product shoot.

 

[Bluebird33]

Sometimes, money cannot be saved.

There are professionals that can go down to your shop to shoot instead.

Learning is good, but what you need is proper lighting, just a lightbox is not sufficient. Lighting is another skillset required for product shoot.

If I wanted to hire a professional to shoot for me I won't even ask for help in this forum. Lol. If everything use money then I won't earn money liao.

I'm asking for a long term sustainable plan to photograph my products at the highest quality I'm able to, affordably. Not spend thousands per year asking some photographer to shoot for me.

Anyway you guys are of better help than club snap, they ask me use iPhone take better. Lol

 

[davidktw]

If I wanted to hire a professional to shoot for me I won't even ask for help in this forum. Lol. If everything use money then I won't earn money liao.

I'm asking for a long term sustainable plan to photograph my products at the highest quality I'm able to, affordably. Not spend thousands per year asking some photographer to shoot for me.

Anyway you guys are of better help than club snap, they ask me use iPhone take better. Lol

I like your attitude towards achieving something. It is always good to get your hands dirty. But I also think it is good to learn the proper ways by demonstration. Learn by observing how the professionals does it and then do it yourself by experimenting. So for the first session, do consider working with the pros and observe how they execute it.

 

[Crexzz]

More like your 5 cents is 0.00005 cents. Try photoshop a black scene and see if you will get anything out from it. Doing it right at the input level is always the proper and best approach to having great output. That's not to say photoshop skill is not required, but photoshop skill will not help you recover lost details and when you have glare on areas that are not suppose to be there, photoshop will do more harm than improvement.

oops.. my bad.... i thought TS is a businessman like myself whose main concern is to make money and bank on consideration like cost effectiveness & to stretch the dollar effectively

yeah, but how to take out reflections on the glass/ blurriness of the picture with just photo editing software? I always use auto contrast in photoshop to make the whites and black look more deep colored, making it have a bit of hi-def look..

forget my comment. The hobbyist/professional photographer will guide you on how to spend money on various helpful equipment.

 

[davidktw]

oops.. my bad.... i thought TS is a businessman like myself whose main concern is to make money and bank on consideration like cost effectiveness & to stretch the dollar effectively






forget my comment. The hobbyist/professional photographer will guide you on how to spend money on various helpful equipment.

Right. Like using the photoshop skill set is a free thing to come by. I bet anyone whom can spend $13/mth suddenly becomes photoshop expert huh.

 

[Crexzz]

Right. Like using the photoshop skill set is a free thing to come by. I bet anyone whom can spend $13/mth suddenly becomes photoshop expert huh.

Loll obviously you have zero idea what I'm talking about.
Oh well... No point going further from here.
Ditching thread.

 

[davidktw]

Loll obviously you have zero idea what I'm talking about.
Oh well... No point going further from here.
Ditching thread.

Or maybe you think I don't know. would you think I don't know how businessman thinks? Opportunity costs, cost of investment and so forth. Question is what makes u think TS can't achieve learning the rope and end up be just as good as a professional on the skill to execute it properly?

Feel free to ditch the thread

 

[Bonadaly]

Right. Like using the photoshop skill set is a free thing to come by. I bet anyone whom can spend $13/mth suddenly becomes photoshop expert huh.

There are many photoshop tutorials around.......

CS don't teach PS

 

[davidktw]

There are many photoshop tutorials around.......

CS don't teach PS

Rephrase: why should CS be in the topic? Even if you study CS, that doesn't mean life should only be limited to it. One should study with no intended faculty or veryical