Watches and jewellery photography...a 'Love or Hate' matter.

I would like to show you some of the latest watches images I have taken and some of the steps to get to the final image. Today, I won't show you a complete video of the photography set and retouching but just point and show to you the steps we take to get there. For some photographers this would be boring and tiring, but for me, I absolutely love it.

The very first step is to make sure that you have captures all the parts that you need. Jewellery, watches and very shiny objects can be a hard model to get all the parts and sides perfect in one single image. I am not saying that it is impossible, but since the items can be round or have facetes facing different angles, some light and reflections will go everywhere or not at all.

- Dust and Clean the whole image;

- Push the pin in;

- Retouch the areas where the light

does not hit properly;

- Paint the areas in the ‘hands’

where the light does not hit;

- Retouch scratches, bumps

and any faulty welding or parts;

- Colour adjustments.

In these images below you will see the images that I used to create the final one (bottom). Rubber bands tend to grab and attract more dust than metal, so dust and clean is a must and it can take a long time. You can see in the top image that one side of the minutes hand is darker because of the shape of the handle, so this has to be retouched. If the hand was flat, this would not have happened. Some parts of the lugs (part that holds the bands) are dark because they face slightly outwards, this has to be also retouched. These kind of touch ups can be completely photoshoped or merged from another image that has been taken specifically for that part. There are no specific rule on how the final images should look like. It all depends on your clients brief (first of all), the overall look and feel of the image.

The same principal will apply to the three images below.

Final Images:

As always, have fun trying new things and techniques. The brain can get complacent and comfortable to easily if you keep taking the same shots all the time and keep using the same technique and lighting every time.