How to Photograph a Wrist Watch: Studio Product Photography

The most important element of product photography in a studio is the light source. The light source being used for product photography should be big enough to light up the product from all directions unless you intentionally want to partially light the product. The wrist watch product photo was clicked using Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens set at 1/125 sec shutter speed, F/22 aperture value and ISO 400.

What all equipments/things were used during this product shoot?

Canon 550D equipped with Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens

A steady tripod

One studio light (ELINCHROM – D-Lite RX One)

Acrylic sheet

A4 size white paper

Why ISO 400 for a studio shoot?

As i was using ELINCHROM – D-Lite RX One as the key lighting source, which is not that bright, i had to compromise on the ISO because i wanted to click the wrist watch at f/22 to keep the band in focus as well. If you have much brighter light source, try and keep the ISO minimum.

How did I manage to get the reflection?

Simply use a black acrylic sheet or a black tinted mirror as the surface to capture the reflection of the product you are planning to shoot. Make sure there are no dust particles on the acrylic sheet/mirror to avoid spending extra time removing them during the post processing (comes as a learning to me after this shoot).

product photography — Raw file, to show how the image looks using only one studio light. Later, i used white sheets to reflect back light.

One light was not enough to light up the wrist watch, as the material is such that i had to struggle a lot to achieve this result. The studio light was placed at around 60 degree towards the left hand side of the wrist watch.

Using a couple of white paper sheets as reflectors, I managed to reflect back the light on the parts of the watch which were darker. To make sure white paper sheets stay in the same position where you place them, use Blu-Tack (reusable adhesive).

Hope you all like this setup for product photography. Do share your questions or suggestions in the comments below.