Watches I own or have owned...

Over the weekend I was looking for a simple tutorial on the basics of post processing, specifically for watch photography, using the free software ‘Gimp’, without any joy….

Gimp can be downloaded from here: http://www.gimp.org/

The software is a free equivalent of ‘Photoshop’ and I cannot comment on its functions or ease of use in comparison to it and other image manipulation software as I’ve not experienced any, but from what I can see, for the level of use I need it is perfect, does everything that I’m likely to want to do, (and more!) and doesn’t involve any financial outlay if I lose interest!

However, as I am a total newcomer to post processing – and only recently developed an interest in watch photos beyond a simple point and shoot – it does appear pretty baffling initially.

There are lots of videos on YouTube explaining individual functionally / actions etc. that are very useful, right down to the absolute basics, but nothing I could find that related specifically to watches. They also require a fair amount of time searching, reviewing and absorbing – and the content and quality of some are much better than others.

Anyway, as I experimented with Gimp I thought it may be interesting to keep a record and post into my TZ-UK Blog, it will be useful for me to reference back to, it may be also be useful to anyone else interested in having a go!

I started with a photo taken of my Sinn EZM2 whilst out with my dogs that I wanted to try to ‘improve’ using some of the techniques I had heard and read about, this is the original photo:





And following a bit of work, this is where I got to:





Subtle differences and far from professional, but I feel that the photo is enhanced commensurate with my low level of skill and experience! I also appreciate that this is fairly subjective and that some may prefer the original photo – or suggest that the ‘final’ version looks over processed – both could be fair statements, I admit fully that I am no expert and certainly do not pertain to be, but I enjoyed the process and my intention from posting this is to help others who may want to also have a go. Everyone has to start somewhere!

In fact, I would welcome comments and critique from anyone more experienced and professional who cares to make constructive feedback and suggestions.

I will post a full blog on how the results above were achieved soon, including a few pitfalls and useful tips that I discovered in the process. I will add further blogs as my experimentation and picture fettling continues….

Cheers,

Rob