Greetings to all!
I'm relatively new to the watch game & this forum. I love looking at all the photos of the fine specimens on here. Especially the lume shots. Some of them are amazing! I'm inclined to try a lume shot of my AT. Will I need a macro lens? I have Canon 70D with a 17-55mm f/2.8 lens. What shutter speed should I use, or should I use the bulb setting? Thanks in advance for any tips!

 

Truth. Taken with an iPhone 6 and an ultraviolet flashlight.

 

Do you have a tripod? Generally holding a camera in hand 30th is as low as you want to go. Or go longer with a tripod. But you can charge it with any flashlight and try shooting it with shutter priority at 45. Play around with additional soft lighting.

 

Are you familiar with the basics of photography? The relationship between ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed; how aperture affects depth of field etc?

If not, I'd read up on that as well as taking recommendations from this thread to develop an understanding of why x works and y doesn't.

 

@dsio & @ahartfie Thanks for the black light tip!

@Foo2rama Yes, sir. I have a tripod. Will try that out. Thanks!

@TheHoof I'm a starving amateur and I've been tinkering with settings a bit. I know opening up the aperture gives me a shallow depth of field (bokeh), but I don't want that. So if I use a higher f-stop, more of the image will be in focus, which is what I want. But then I will need to turn up the ISO sensitivity, and that adds noise. I've tried some of the preset shutter speeds without satisfaction. I'm wondering if using the bulb setting with remote shutter release will yield better results...

 

Definitely use your tripod, set your

- shutter speed to 30
- ISO 800
- aperture f8

If it's too bright increase the shutter speed, to 60, 100 etc.

if it's to dark decrease your shutter speed to 15,10, 8 etc

Or do the same with the ISO, adjust it up or down, and the same could be said of the f stops.

But only adjust either the shutter speed, or the ISO , or the aperture, not all 3

Best regards,

 

blast it with a good amount of light, turn off all lights in the room, then max out your shutter speed to be as long as possible to compensate (remember to use a tripod)

here are some examples I have taken:

 

Awesome lume shots! I'm going a have try it myself now.

 

Thanks bill! only issue with shooting the way i shoot is that the minute hand leaves a light trail behind as it moves slowly, the only workaround to that is if leave the watches unwinded

 

The pics on the Omegas are just amazing.Well done!

 

Hold it up next to a light bulb for a few second. an iPhone would do the trick.

 

thank you! unfortunately my pieces have all veered toward vintages which barely have lume

 

I have to try it myself..nice pictures.

 

As @josephgsy said, strong light exposure and successive lume shot (especially with aged tritium dials).

Sorry, some pictures are blurry...

 

iPhone 6 not to shabby,

 

nice shots, with an iphone?

 

Thanks.

Nope, with a Nikon D5000 with a 18-55 mm lens (without a tripod explaining the blurry effect of the pictures).

 

I had a play around yesterday. I made it quite dark by almost completely closing the blinds, then played with shutter speeds and apertures until I got the depth of field and exposure that I wanted for the watch and background. Then a blast with an extremely bright light to get the lume glowing, then light off and photo taken. It was a 30 second exposure hence the disappearing running seconds hand.



I think lume shots are much nicer when you can at least make out the details of the watch besides just the lume and complete darkness, and if the dial seems to be lit solely by the lume (like in @josephgsy ’s epic picture of his Alaska Project above) then all the better

 

probably would get much better shots with a tripod, longer exposure and some colour correction