Watch Product Photography Techniques in Studio

Photography Tips  •  Product Photography  •  Studio Photography

With multiple light setups and specialized equipment, product photography can seem daunting and complicated. It doesn’t have to be like that, as Dustin Dolby shows us in this useful video:

Using a kit lens, a striplight softbox and an ordinary Yongnuo speedlight, Dolby talks us through the process he uses to create a really nice looking catalog-style image of a wristwatch. He shoots at f/13, and finds that focus stacking isn’t necessary for this shoot.

Wrist Watch Product Photography Tips

• Use a sheet of black Plexiglass to create the reflection under the watch and a sheet of black card behind it for the background.
• Place a plain white sheet of card as a reflector on the shadow side of the watch.
• Keep things static. Place your reflector on a stand, so you don’t have to hand-hold it. Much product photography lighting involves making micro adjustments, and having things on stands makes this much easier and more consistent.
• Use a plain diffusion disc held over the front of a speedlight to give a soft fill light.
• Move the flash and diffuser to different angles to get a variety of shots to composite in post-processing.
• Place the bare speedlight to the front to give a shot with some sparkle on the watch face.

Although Dolby doesn’t show us his post-processing on this video, he uses the best-lit shots from his session to create a final composite image in Photoshop using layers and masking. It took just five minutes to edit the final image, which is amazing considering how good it looks.

Hopefully, this video will inspire you to experiment with product photography once you see how quick and simple it can actually be.

“Today, I’m going to show you a ridiculously quick workflow.”