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My CNET colleague Katie Collins has been putting things together A great feature about the possibility of repairing wearable devicesand in particular pixel watch 4. It’s worth reading, however for me The task was to produce photos and videos to accompany the story. From taking close-up photos with specialized lenses to turning my home into a video studio, there was a lot to do.
I’m happy with the results, and the photos look great on the page. Here’s how I put it all together.
Watch this: I replaced the screen on my Google Pixel Watch 4. There must be more wearables out there that are repairable
Macro Photography: The camera equipment I used
while I love the Leica Q3 43 For outdoor photography, the main camera I use for most studio photography and macro work is my camera Canon R5. It’s highly accurate and features precise autofocus and in-body stabilization, which can be a real blessing.
My secret weapon for this shoot was… DZO Films X-Tract probe lens. This specialist macro lens feels oddly long and thin, but it allows me to take very close-up photos of subjects while still providing a wide-angle view. The result is dramatic macro images, so I used this lens almost exclusively for the “hero” images of the piece. You can learn more about how I use it in the behind-the-scenes video, which is embedded below.
But the right lens can only take you so far. I also used a Zhiyun Molus G300 LED light With a wide and narrow stripe rate in the front. This turns the small LED light source into a wide light, giving a large spread over the watch. I angled this to get clean-looking edge light in some images, or a more balanced stream of light in others. I highlighted this by using a variety of reflectors to ‘bounce’ the light back into the product – in some cases, even small pieces of paper were enough to help create a beautiful reflection on the shiny watch.
Macro photography: taking pictures
I actually decided on a visual style for these images, with a stark, high-contrast aesthetic, somewhat reminiscent of Apple’s product photography in the OS
The probe lens allowed me to get closer to the subject. Since I didn’t have enough hands free, I held the pliers in place using multiple levers and a grip that is supposed to be used to hold test tubes in laboratories. Final shot below.
To help achieve this, I used product still images of the watch with my hand in the frame and using pliers to remove components like the battery or screen. I often discover a strong visual look for an image series before taking the photos. This can be one of the best ways to elevate your photos from simple snapshots to something special that tells a story. It takes more time to think about, but the results will speak for themselves.
Once the scenes were set up, I put the camera and long probe lens in place and dialed in my settings: This is usually around ISO 200 on the camera, an aperture between f16 and f32 on the lens and a shutter speed of around 1/15 of a second. It’s very slow, so I had to make sure I fixed the camera on a tripod to make sure there wasn’t any movement that would cause blur in the image. I used a remote shutter release cable so I didn’t have to touch the camera and risk moving it.
Final image.
To make sure the entire product was crystal clear, I used a technique called focus stacking. This involves taking many photos – usually about 20 – focusing first on the closest part of the watch and adjusting the focus with each photo to move the focus point farther and farther. I then stitched those images together using a custom program called Helicon Focus.
Finally, I took an out-of-focus shot in Adobe Photoshop to do some retouching, including dust removal, color correction, and, in some shots, removing the large LED softbox from the image. I also stitched some images together, blending the watch frame with a separate frame of my hand using pliers. Although I sometimes wanted to try to capture these images as one shot, I simply didn’t have that many hands available at once, so I had to blend multiple images together.
I used two pieces of white card as reflectors, bouncing some of the light from the top LED onto the shiny body of the clock.
Premium video shooting: More macro fun
Some of the clips in the video were captured in the same way as the still images above – I simply switched the camera to video mode and pressed the record button. But there was a lot to do besides that.
The main thing captured was Katie’s exposure to the camera, as she (expertly) delivered her script. For this, I shot with Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro coupled with 35mm Arl Prime Cine lens from DZO Film. I used a pink paper background (because I love color) and used the same LED light as before as the main light on Katie’s face, with a SmallRig RC 450B LED as a fill light on the other side of her face to help soften the shadows and give the scene a more balanced look.
I recorded audio using two microphones: a VideoMic NTG mounted a shotgun microphone On the boom arm just outside the shot above Katie’s head (wiredly connected to DJI Microphone 2 transmitter) and a separate DJI Mic 2 transmitter used with its own built-in microphone clipped to the collar of Katie’s shirt and hidden in her hair.
To capture Katie’s piece on camera, I used a BlackMagic Cinema camera, two microphones, and two large LED light sources.
Then came the Pixel Watch 4 teardown section, which I shot using almost the same setup. I repositioned the lights and swapped the 35mm prime lens for DZOFilm Arles Prime 75mm Cine Lens To allow me to get a closer look at the intricate work Katie was doing, without having to put my camera (or lens) in the way of her work.
The video was then edited by expert CNET producer J.D. Christison, and finally, all the pieces were ready to go.
My favorite picture from the series. This was a combination of about 20 focused images of the main body of the watch, with separate images taken of my hand in different positions. Then I stitched them together in Photoshop.
If this sounds like a lot of effort, that’s because it was. I worked on this over several late nights and an entire weekend. Product and macro photography can be a delicate form of photography, requiring a lot of preparation and a great deal of attention to detail. When you’re focusing very close, every little adjustment makes a huge difference to your image, so there’s a lot of trial and error involved.
It certainly also requires a lot of equipment and a fair amount of space to set everything up. I converted a large bedroom in my house into a studio space to take photos and videos for CNET, so I don’t have to worry as much about making a mess. I installed specialized shelving and wall-mounted back supports so I could use the compact space as a regular production studio. If you plan to recreate this type of thing in your home, be prepared for a lot of clean-up after each photo session.
But since this feature is a key part of CNET, I wanted to make sure the images we used looked as good as possible, so spending this amount of time and effort on these visuals is well worth it. I’ve been a journalist at CNET for 15 years now, but it still gives me a huge sense of pride when I see my photos used in stories like this.
