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Gloves?

PTwatchLover

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This probably is a really noob question but I'm looking for the gloves that people use to touch watches without leaving fingerprints on them. I'm into watch photography and it's a pain to keep them clean. Where do you get them? How are they called? Cotton gloves? Micro fiber gloves? I searched amazon but results didn't convince me much. Who can help please?
 

Feefo

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Hey, in how far are you into watch photography? I'm very interested, if you cared to share your experience. I was into photography a long time ago, my gear is stashed in the deeps of some closet, would love to pick up and make some of it....
 

PTwatchLover

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Hey, in how far are you into watch photography? I'm very interested, if you cared to share your experience. I was into photography a long time ago, my gear is stashed in the deeps of some closet, would love to pick up and make some of it....
My "hobby" for the last decade has been photography. I did stock photography and (still) sell images through image banks and it was a nice secondary source of income but what I like is doing studio portrait photography just for fun. When I got into RWI and started seeing the Eyecandy shots of the day figured it would be fun to start shooting watches. Watches are not easy to photograph because, mostly, of dial reflexions but what I'm liking the most is not the technical part of if but the compositions you can make and the way you can stage the photos. That's basically what product photographers do.

So to answer how far I am into watch photography, I'm just taking it easy and fun, just staging the photos with props and the likes. I'm using natural light and my phone or a Fuji camera. I'm not even using the studio strobes and the Nikon gear. Each area of photography has its tricks and it's fun, if you like photography, to understand and learn. As an example, if you are shooting a watch, you can and should block the light just above the dial (you can use a lens cap or something else small) to prevent reflexions. But that's it. The smoke and mirrors of photography makes me tick. What you see in that small rectangle usually never is reality. It's just that second when everything was aligned perfectly and you never know what else was happening out of those bounds.

If you want to talk about photography @Feefo, count on me. ;)
 
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Feefo

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Well, let's keep in touch on this. For me it's really difficult to simply find the time. When I'm off the job the family requires much attention... But I'd like to exchange opinions and advice!
 

PTwatchLover

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Well, let's keep in touch on this. For me it's really difficult to simply find the time. When I'm off the job the family requires much attention... But I'd like to exchange opinions and advice!
I do understand that. I went to the studio at night, after the kids where in bed and it was like 3 times a month at most. The most consuming part of it was the time I spent editing the photos on photoshop, daily. What I do now just for fun with watches is lighter. I gather composition ideas on Pinterest, mostly before sleep or at some other down times. The shooting itself is no more than 15 minutes. And then I upload to the phone the photos I like the most (if I use the fuji camera) and edit them on snapseed in a couple of minutes. It's just for fun. Not the kind of stuff I sold.

Feel free to drop me a message any time.
 

Feefo

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I do understand that. I went to the studio at night, after the kids where in bed and it was like 3 times a month at most. The most consuming part of it was the time I spent editing the photos on photoshop, daily. What I do now just for fun with watches is lighter. I gather composition ideas on Pinterest, mostly before sleep or at some other down times. The shooting itself is no more than 15 minutes. And then I upload to the phone the photos I like the most (if I use the fuji camera) and edit them on snapseed in a couple of minutes. It's just for fun. Not the kind of stuff I sold.

Feel free to drop me a message any time.
That sounds fine, a "light" activity with lots of fun. Nowadays I think if I find suitable mobile apps then it would be fine, no time for more.
This was quite spontaneous, in hindsight very cluttered.


I'm not big in stock photography, that pic is a bit cluttered and confused. I've always been an architectural and landscape photographer. And most of my "career" (I did earn some small money with it when I was young) was still analog....
 
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Feefo

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Ops, uploaded wrong pic...
 

PTwatchLover

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That image looks nice. If I may make a suggestion, I would use something small to block the light over the dial so that it wouldn't be blowned out. That's a no no in product photography. Either than that I don't find it cluttered. It gives a sense of reality and all the props make sense together. Maybe it would also work if you had rotated the watch to the left so that the bracelet made a V with the binoculars (?) and at the same time filled that empty space on the right of the map.

Landscape photography is also great but it takes a lot of time since you have to go to the same spot lots of times to search for the right light and that all the elements fall on the right places. I find it quite rewarding when they do and it's one of those moments that won't ever repeat itself.

I've never worked with analog photography. I love the amplitude of manipulation that digital photography permits, but the rawness of analog and of not knowing what you got until you develop the film must be great, right?
 

Feefo

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Analog is another philosophy, which actually matches the landscape/arch photography pretty well:you gotta take your time for each shot. Each shot is valuable and must sit. You shoot the pic first in your head, I find my exposition awareness was much more developed. Nowadays you just shoot a couple of tries and look at the screen. Back then there was much more consciousness of each step of the process if that makes sense to you.
And then there were the times you knew that particular shot was a Pulitzer and you couldn't wait to develop the whole film for that single frame. I find myself thinking of going back to it... Like vinyl it will come back, or has it already?
 
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