Luxury watches retouching specialist – article by Studio Impress
Luxury watches retouching specialist on How to do a product photo-shoot of watch and not to go mad
The complexity of object photography in general is determined by several factors. The most important for our case now are only two. It is the size of the object and its material. As for the size, both extremes are bad here: both too large and tiny. We attribute watches to the second type.
The second decisive factor is object’s material. Having a certain experience, photographer does not fear metal or glass. But when you put together these two objects different in shooting properties and same in capriciousness – frustration begins. Orienting in the choice of light on the metal, you always lose in the battle with the glass. And vice versa.
Do not forget that this example is really extremely easy. After all, options are possible in more complex combinations. Like a metal of two colors, glass, stones, leather, rubber, plastic, ceramics, etc.
Luxury watches retouching specialist on Algorithm that will help to cope with product shooting of the watch
You need to start from the body. Putting a light on it, we look, whether it is possible to attach some pieces of the reflector. It is done to have a good light also on a strap. After removing the body and strap from the first stage, we proceed to the dial.
Yes, the secret is in this. Parts of the watches that we do not want to photograph together, we should shoot separately. Next, retoucher’s task will be to put together all the parts together to get the perfect picture. Now it seems obvious, but this knowledge came only with the experience, blood & tears of the retouchers.
Remember the dust and fingerprints on the watch
Dust, which no one will notice on the photos of shoes, on the watch lights up like stars. Imagine a dial in the size of 3-5 cm, which becomes 30-centimeter on the computer monitor. Any flaw, especially dust and fingerprints, turn from splinters into logs, which can not be overlooked.
There is nothing impossible for a retoucher who will remove both dust and stains. But because of the many details and textures, as well as the small size of the clock, this process can take a lot of time, effort and money. Therefore, in photography, I always follow the principle – everything we can remove and clean before shooting, we should do as follows.
Before taking a picture, we need to blow out a special pear just settled dust particles. They are there, although you do not see them. Just trust me – the dust settles on the newly rubbed watch at the rate of “100 grains per second”.
Photography (c) Boris Rozbroj for Trilobe watches
