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Show off your watch's luminescence abilities?
I'll start . . .
Show off your watch's luminescence abilities?
I'll start . . .

current - MANY of my watches have incredible LUM, but I can not get the pictures.
can you give a quick dummy summary of how you took the pic above please.
thanks. i am still having problems but will not give up!Sure . . .
Put watch onto table with black background. Turned off all incandescent lights! Since it was daylight I had the table set up near window for natural light (it was an overcast day -- otherwise I would use my lighting set up). Set up camera on tripod. Went into macro mode settings on camera. Grabbed my light shades (to help block or manipulate light so that there is no direct light beams shining onto the watch). The auto macro settings work in very low light, therefore you don't need to much light which can create hot spots on the watch which reflect back into the camera. Take the time to look over the entire watch (through the view finder) looking for any glowing or reflections.
Positioned the watch, not only to be perpendicular to the camera lens (so that it looks straight and even), but to reduce/eliminate any reflections of light onto the crystal. Set the internal timer for at least 3-5 seconds, and press the shutter. Auto focus and F-stop aperture take great pics. By using the timer, it allows me to completely remove my hand from the camera so that I don't shake it.
In a nutshell . . . use bright white or natural, diffused light if possible . . . try to eliminate all bright spots on the case and crystal (reposition the watch and or use light shades to manipulate the light the way you need it), and MOST importantly . . . the camera must not move at all. A tripod is crucial.
Take these pics and run them through Photoshop or whatever program, and voila!
EDIT: I forgot . . . I use an LED flashlight to charge the lume. Several minutes on the dial, and it will glow like mad! NO KIDDING! This allows your entire timepiece to be seen while the lume is on fire!
TVDinner wrote:current - MANY of my watches have incredible LUM, but I can not get the pictures.
can you give a quick dummy summary of how you took the pic above please.
Not sure why, but one of these with white light super charges lume. Has to be something about the color temperature of the light.Thank you tera. I am going to keep trying. I now have a LED flashlight also!
CurrentTime wrote:thanks. i am still having problems but will not give up!Sure . . .
Put watch onto table with black background. Turned off all incandescent lights! Since it was daylight I had the table set up near window for natural light (it was an overcast day -- otherwise I would use my lighting set up). Set up camera on tripod. Went into macro mode settings on camera. Grabbed my light shades (to help block or manipulate light so that there is no direct light beams shining onto the watch). The auto macro settings work in very low light, therefore you don't need to much light which can create hot spots on the watch which reflect back into the camera. Take the time to look over the entire watch (through the view finder) looking for any glowing or reflections.
Positioned the watch, not only to be perpendicular to the camera lens (so that it looks straight and even), but to reduce/eliminate any reflections of light onto the crystal. Set the internal timer for at least 3-5 seconds, and press the shutter. Auto focus and F-stop aperture take great pics. By using the timer, it allows me to completely remove my hand from the camera so that I don't shake it.
In a nutshell . . . use bright white or natural, diffused light if possible . . . try to eliminate all bright spots on the case and crystal (reposition the watch and or use light shades to manipulate the light the way you need it), and MOST importantly . . . the camera must not move at all. A tripod is crucial.
Take these pics and run them through Photoshop or whatever program, and voila!
EDIT: I forgot . . . I use an LED flashlight to charge the lume. Several minutes on the dial, and it will glow like mad! NO KIDDING! This allows your entire timepiece to be seen while the lume is on fire!
TVDinner wrote:current - MANY of my watches have incredible LUM, but I can not get the pictures.
can you give a quick dummy summary of how you took the pic above please.
Thanks for the compliments. All those shots were done in my light-box with the camera on a tripod and set on aperture priority. I usually shoot at F11 to get reasonable depth of field. I turn off all room lights and just use one main light to light the watch. My main light has a set of barn doors on it that I use to control the amount of light. After setting up the watch, under full light I focus using manual focus. I do that because my auto focus is hit and miss in dark conditions. After focusing I close the barn doors until there is just a very small amount of illumination on the watch and take the shot. In my experience I get a color shift if I shoot in total darkness. A small amount of light seems to hold the color balance.Nice lume even in daylight, how did you get it to glow like that with ambient light?