Product photography often looks intimidating from the outside. Large studios, expensive lighting setups, specialized gear — it’s easy to assume you need a professional space to shoot clean product images.

But sometimes the best way to learn is to experiment with what you already have.

Recently, I did a small photography experiment at home: shooting watch product photos at f/22 using a simple tabletop setup.

The goal wasn’t to create a luxury watch campaign. It was simply to test how far a small home studio setup could go in producing clean product photos.

And the results were surprisingly good.

The Challenge: Shooting Watches at f/22

My photography mentor once told me something that stuck with me:

“If possible, shoot watches at f/32. If not, shoot at f/22.”

The reason behind this advice is depth of field.

Watches have many small elements that need to appear sharp:

• the dial
  
• the bezel
  
• the hands
  
• the crown
  
• sometimes even the bracelet
  

Because product photography often happens at very close distances, depth of field becomes extremely shallow. Stopping down the lens to f/22 or even f/32 helps keep more of the watch sharp in a single shot.

Modern photographers often use focus stacking to solve this problem, but I wanted to try the old-school approach: simply stopping down the aperture.

My Home Studio Setup

This shoot was done in a small corner at home using a very simple setup:

• Folding table
  
• White paper backdrop taped to the wall
  
• Two Godox lights with softboxes
  
• Tripod
  
• A watch cushion
• And a bottle cap (yes) 

That’s it.

No professional scrims.
No fancy flags.
Just a practical tabletop setup.

Like most product shoots, a bit of improvisation was involved. To tilt the watch slightly toward the light, I even placed a small bottle cap behind the cushion to adjust the angle.

Sometimes the simplest tricks work best.

Camera Settings

For this experiment, I used the following settings:

• Aperture: f/22
  
• Shutter Speed: 1/5 sec
  
• ISO: 100
  
  

Since the watch wasn’t moving and the camera was on a tripod, the slower shutter speed wasn’t a problem.

ISO 100 helped keep the images clean and detailed, which is important for product photography.

Lighting Considerations

Watches are one of the trickiest products to photograph because of their reflective surfaces.

Polished metal, glass crystals, and shiny bezels can easily create harsh highlights or distracting reflections.

Instead of blasting the watch with direct light, the goal was to use large, soft light sources to create smoother reflections across the metal surfaces.

Softboxes positioned slightly to the side helped create a gentle gradient across the watch case and bezel.

Even small adjustments in angle made a big difference in how the reflections appeared.

Focusing Strategy

I didn’t use focus stacking for this shoot.

Instead, I adjusted my focus point depending on the composition:

For angled shots, I focused on the front bezel edge, since it was the closest part of the watch to the camera.

For straight-on shots, I focused on the center dial near the logo, which is usually the visual focal point of the watch.

At f/22, this approach allowed enough depth of field to keep the important elements sharp.

The Results

With some light adjustments in Lightroom — minor exposure tweaks, highlight control, and dust cleanup — the images turned out clean and usable.

For a simple home setup, the results were more than acceptable for:

• blog content
  
• portfolio images
  
• small e-commerce product photos
  

Sometimes you don’t need a huge studio. You just need to understand how light behaves.

Lessons from This Shoot

This little experiment reinforced a few important things about product photography:

Lighting matters more than gear

A simple lighting setup can produce strong results if the light is controlled properly.

Small adjustments make big differences

Changing the angle of the watch by just a few degrees can dramatically change reflections.

You don’t need a big studio

A folding table, a paper backdrop, and a couple of lights can go a long way.

Final Thoughts

Product photography doesn’t always have to be complicated.

Sometimes it’s just a matter of experimenting, observing how light behaves, and making small adjustments along the way.

In this case, a home studio, a bottle cap, and a curious Shih Tzu walking around the set were enough to make the experiment interesting.

And honestly, that’s part of the fun.

If you're exploring product photography for your brand or online store, having clean, consistent visuals can make a huge difference in how customers perceive your products. At Looseleaf Studio, we help small businesses create practical, high-quality product photos suitable for e-commerce, catalogs, and digital platforms.

You can learn more about our product photography services at Looseleaf Studio if you're planning a shoot for your own products.