Clockwork

[RainPacket]

Alright... this is one of my personal favorites, given that it was a total wild experiment, and I've sort of held off posting it for fear others will see things wrong with it. On the other hand, it's good to know what folks will see wrong with it!



I've always been fascinated with clockwork; one of my prized possessions is a (now restored) Ball & Co 17-jewel pocketwatch that I inherited from my grandmother. So when I found a tray of old clockwork watch innards for $2 a watch, I bought... er, five. All of them are missing cogs and bits, and I didn't care. I took my favorite of them and tried some psuedo-macro shots.

I shot at ISO 200, f/11, 1 second exposure. I used my 70-300mm lens, with some Kenko macro extender tubes to change the focal length. The backdrop is a piece of standard HP printer paper; the light is provided by a frosted-glass desk lamp from Ikea.

(I'm thinking I should eventually look into a lightbox...)

I took about 10 different pictures of the watch from slightly different positions. In all, I found this was the one I liked best. The frosted-glass of the desklamp and the yellowish bulb inside gave the entire thing a sort of sepia-tone I had completely not intended, but decided I liked.

Compositionally, the entire thing is unbalanced. Color-wise, it's single-hue. I can point to a number of things that are, technically, "wrong" with the shot... and yet I still really like it. So I'm curious what others think of it...

[Digidave]

The 1 thing I can say that would be bad about this shot is that, It bothers me that I can't read the inscriptions on the watch. Maybe it wouldn't bother most people, but it was the first thing I looked at. I'm kinda anal that way. And you know what they say about first impressions. Other than that, it's a very nice shot.

[jiminyClickit]

RainPacket,

Going with the first impression thing, as I scrolled I thought 'why yellowish?' then finished reading and understood 'old watch, old light.'

Off-frame angle? As a generic watch-shot for an article, that would work. But I know you can't question a "favorite" photo; they either speak to you or they don't. When they do, the rules don't count.

Would love to see a true macro of the center jewel with highlights. Ruby red in brass, niiiiice.

[Saralonde]

Originally Posted by RainPacket

(I'm thinking I should eventually look into a lightbox...)

Try this. Really quite cheap and easy.
http://digital-photography-school.co...light=lightbox

[Seltzer]

Originally Posted by Saralonde

Try this. Really quite cheap and easy.
http://digital-photography-school.co...light=lightbox

Was wondering when someone would post that.. another joy of the lightbox is then you can use whatever lighting you want for a different tone.. i'm thinking I may set one up and play with some Christmas lights or ropelights.. maybe even get a different color in different sections, could prove for some interesting results.