CHRISTIAN LAWSON WATCH
Recently I was approached by Christian Lawson to produce some “influencer” photos of their watches. My content focuses on camera accessories not men’s fashion accessories. But Before I declined their offer I decided to take a look at their watch collection. I wanted to see what they were all about. I really liked the clean lines and the simplicity of Christian Lawson brand. Then there it was. I spotted an all black watch with a bright red second hand. The visual aesthetic reminded me of the iconic red ring that Canon uses to brand their L glass. I thought it would be interesting to utilize Canon’s L glass as a prop in the product photos. I’ve never seen Canon’s lenses used like that and thought it would be fun to experiment and see what it would lead to. I’m not the type of photographer that likes to rinse and repeat the same photo over and over again. Trying new things is a great way to keep the passion alive so I accepted the offer.
When it came down to choosing which camera and lens combo to shoot this series with I ended up going with the Fujifilm X100V. It’s a strange choice for product photos but I kept thinking about a video I watched by fellow YouTuber Lee Zavitz. He suggested in his video that the X100V was capable of shooting commercial photos. I figured this would be an opportunity to test it out. I’m going to take the X100V out with me on some commercial shoots and test it some more. Subscribe to my YouTube channel to hear my final thoughts.
The concept I had in mind was to shoot a very contrasty set of photos using natural window light. I wanted the photos to look very authentic as if the viewer was holding the watch themselves. Sunlight is obviously really bright and in order to keep the shadows rich, dark and moody I dropped the X100V’s built in ND filter. Which by the way is an incredible feature to have in such a compact and affordable body. For the film simulation I chose Classic Chrome and tweaked it a little in Capture One to make the reds bright. The X100v definitely has limitations for commercial photography but when it comes to producing quick social media content it has a really simple workflow and the images, as you can see, look fantastic.
The photos came out great. I’m loving the deep dark shadows and the moody character. That’s exactly the look I was aiming for. I’m happy that I chose the X100V for the photos. As for the Christian Lawson watch it looks stunning. I’m still really enjoying the simple clean lines. I really like the fact that there is no logo or branding on the watch itself. It’s just super clean and minimal and that’s really the charm of this watch. I haven’t had the watch long enough to talk about build quality and all that sort of stuff and the Christian Lawson webpage is pretty vague. If you have any question about the watch reach out to me on instagram and post a comment on one of the watch photos and I’ll get back to you. Thanks for checking out the blog.
