Rustic Outdoor Product Photography for Watches in Los Angeles

When I am photographing products, I usually work with on-camera talent to model the product in a lifestyle setting. However, I recently decided to spend more time taking photos of products by themselves without a model.

One morning, I made a plan to produce a rustic outdoor lifestyle product photoshoot with my Burei watch. As you can tell from my portfolio, I love photographing watches and blending different timepieces in an outdoor setting.

In this blog post, I’m going to talk about my planning for this outdoor product photoshoot, share some of my favorite photos for the shoot, and composition tips I put into practice along the way. All watch product photos were taken with the Sony a7R III camera body, and with the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN ART lens and Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 GM OSS II lens.

About The Watch

Starting with the product itself - the Burei watch I’m photographing is a minimalist analog watch with Japanese quartz movement. It has a soft silicone strap and stainless steel case. The reason I bought this watch was for photoshoots, but the simple design on the dial would work well with this kind of photoshoot.

Deciding On The Rustic Concept

As I was thinking about putting together a concept for this photoshoot, I wanted to experiment with a location that would allow me to take product photos with different backgrounds in a small location. After looking through some watch photos online, I decided that I wanted the main theme of this photoshoot to be textures in nature.

As an outdoor photographer, I love experimenting with different textures in a location so I decided to visit a nearby nature trail in Los Angeles for the outdoor shoot.

As with many of my photoshoots, I created a mood board of watches in nature to develop the concept of the photoshoot further. I decided I wanted to utilize textures from rocks, grass, tree bark, and more - and have them supplement the watch. I also thought for this specific photoshoot, I didn’t want to utilize any other props (I might save that for a future outdoor lifestyle product photoshoot).

Taking Test Shots

I arrived early in the morning to take some quick test shots of the watch before fully entering the location. I have been to the location a few times before and I knew that the colors in the photo would be mostly brown, green, and grey. So I think the photos above were a great place to start.

The weather was going to be overcast for the duration of the shoot so I would have any contrasting light from the sun to play with.

Overall, I’m happy with how these photos turned out.

In the photo above, I was still experimenting with textures and whether or not the dirt on the ground would make for an interesting product photo. Even though the composition is pretty basic, I think it was a great starting point to develop further later on in the photoshoot.

Exploring Textures in the Nature Trail

Even though I have visited the nature trail a few times, I never noticed the small creek near the entrance. There’s a rock covered in a bit of moss near the entrance and I decided to take a photo of the watch and use the texture of the rock as a background.

The composition isn’t particularly interesting, but the photo is more closely aligned with what I’d like to take during the outdoor session. The rock has a nice texture, but I also like the green and brown color of the rock. The small dirt clumps and dead leaves on the rock adds a bit more to the photo and I think the photo would look bland without it.

Moving forward, I wanted to make sure that I got at least a few photos of the stainless steel caseback of the Burei watch. When I photograph watches with models, I have a tendency to usually focus only on the dial. But since I’m only shooting the product, I figured it was important to capture other sides of the watch that might be overlooked in a lifestyle photoshoot with a model.

I wanted to make sure the thin blades of green grass appear in the bottom of the frame and feature the rocky texture in the background. I like the contrast of the steel material with textures found in nature.

Looking back, the only thing I would change is the brown left on the top right, as I think it is a bit overpowering in the photo and draws a bit of attention away from the watch. I would either move it farther to the top left, or remove it entirely.

Captured on the Sigma 85mm lens, the photo above was one of my favorite photos during the outdoor session. Unlike the photo above, the watch is the main focus of this product shot and it blends well with the textured background.

The leaves in the foreground are blurred and the different colors of green and brown in the background maintain that rustic nature vibe that I was going for.

There’s not too much happening in the photo, but the different textures, the blurred grass in the foreground, the slight descent from the rocky ledge on the left are all elements that I think keep the photo from looking too bland. The composition of the watch being in the center of the shot is pretty straightforward, but I think it works for this image.

Also captured on the 85mm lens, this is another one of my favorite product photos during the session. At this point, I had a better idea of what I was trying to capture now that I have spent time using the lens and taking photos of the watch in the location.

The rock itself was too big to wrap the silicone strap around it, so I had the watch hanging onto the ledge. I like the rough texture of the rock as the background of the watch dial, and the texture slightly falls off as you look lower down in the photo.

I came across another rock filled with moss further along the nature trail and felt that I wanted to try and capture another image now that there was a bit more light out (even though it was overcast).

In comparison to the other photo, I wanted to keep this photo at a wider angle to show more of the texture of the rock, but I still wanted to keep the watch as the main focal point of the product shot.

Once again, I like the brown leaves mixed with the green moss from both a color and texture perspective.

Before heading to the photoshoot, I knew that I wanted to bring one of my scarves as a prop for the watch photoshoot. This might not be a texture you’ll find in nature, I do think the pattern and color of the scarf fits the rustic vibe of the photoshoot.

While I don’t think it’s one of the best photos in this collection, I am glad that I experimented with the scarf as it was a good opportunity to diversify the final images I chose.

Near the end of the photoshoot, I realized that a lot of the photos I took were with different rock textures, but I wanted to capture a photo of the watch with just grass. I decided to go with the Sony 70-200mm lens and shoot the product photo above at 200mm. 

In order for me to try and get this photo with the exact focus and sharpness on the watch dial I needed, I used manual focus and moved back and forth a lot (and experimented with shutter speeds) until I got the photo I needed.

I like that you can see the reflection of some of the grass blades in the dial.

For the final photo of this session, I tried to wrap the watch on some leaves of a branch since a lot of the photos I took had the watch laid flat. Even though the dead leaves are a bit distracting, I’m pretty happy with how the final image turned out.

The watch dial had a soft glare because of its positioning to the sky and at this point, even though it was overcast, there was enough light coming through the clouds that I lost some of the contrast. In editing, I made sure to mask and adjust the settings so that the watch dial looked clear and sharply in focus.

Final Words

During this photoshoot, I actually dropped the watch on the ground. Rather than trying to clean it off to make it look pristine, I wanted to keep the strap a bit dusty because it made more sense with a rustic product photoshoot like this.

One of the aspects I love most about outdoor lifestyle photoshoots like this is that the product isn’t meant to look perfect like an e-commerce shot, but it’s to capture the theme of the environment.

When editing the photos, I wanted to keep the neutral and earthy tones from the original image.

I don’t often use the Sony 70-200mm lens for photography outside of architectural and travel photos. I’m glad I had the opportunity to experiment with the lens for this watch product photoshoot as if it were a macro lens.

Thank you for reading and until next time.

Feel free to explore photography my website further with lifestyle photoshoots:

Outdoor Lifestyle Product Photography for Watch Brands

City Lifestyle Photoshoot in Downtown Los Angeles with Nolan O’Connor

Luxury Watch Outdoor Lifestyle Photoshoot at Venice Beach: Jacob Hunt

Creative Commercial Beach Campaign Photography: Santa Monica: Austin Lee

Do you like travel? Check out these blog posts featuring landscape and street photography in different cities:

Sunset Venice Beach Photoshoot in Los Angeles

Relaxing Sunset Street Photography In Tokyo, Japan

Night Street Photography in Tokyo Japan with the Sigma 85mm DG DN ART Lens

Golden Hour Street Photography in Berlin, Germany