GoKawiilMy CNET colleague Katie Collins was putting together a superb feature around the repairability of wearable devices, in particular the Pixel Watch 4. It's well worth a read, but my task was to produce the photos and video to accompany the story. From shooting close-up macro photos with specialist lenses to transforming my home into a studio to shoot the video, there was a lot for me to do.
I'm thrilled with the results, and the images look great on the page. Here's how I put it all together.
Watch this: I Replaced the Screen on the Google Pixel Watch 4. More Wearables Should Be This Repairable 05:08
Macro photography: The camera equipment I used
While I love my Leica Q3 43 for out-and-about photography, my main camera for most of my studio product photography and macro work is my Canon R5. It's high-resolution and has accurate autofocus and in-body stabilization, which can be a real boon.
My secret weapon for this shoot was the DZO Films X-Tract probe lens. This specialist macro photography lens looks weirdly long and thin, but it lets me get super close-up on objects while still providing a wide-angle view. The result is dramatic macro images, so I used this lens pretty much exclusively for the "hero" images in the piece. You can see more about how I used it in my 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, narrow strip box modifier on the front. This turns that small LED light source into a wide light, which gives a great spread over the watch. I angled this to get a clean-looking edge light on some images, or a more even flood of light in others. I accented this using a variety of reflectors to "bounce" that light back into the product -- in some cases, even small pieces of paper were enough to help create a nice reflection on the shiny watch.
Macro photography: Taking the images
I'd already decided on a visual style for these images, with a stark, high-contrast aesthetic, somewhat reminiscent of Apple's OS X-era product photography. I wanted the images to be eye-catching and actually illustrative of what's going on to ensure they fit well within the article itself.
The probe lens let me get close up on the subject. As I didn't have enough hands free, I'd secured the pincers in place using multiple rigging arms and a grip that's supposed to be used for holding test tubes in laboratories. The finished shot is below. Andrew Lanxon/CNET
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