Just a little over a year ago, I started writing watch photography tutorials through the Watch Studies account. They started as short lessons in Story format on Instagram and, over time, grew into in-depth written articles published on the site you’re on right now. As of today, there are more than 60 tutorials focused on helping you tell better photographic stories about your favorite timepieces. Insert exploding head emoji.
As I ramp up out of my Study Club paternity leave (which is what I’m retroactively calling the break I’ve taken after the birth of my son) and get back into planning all the tutorials I want to create for you this year, I thought it’d be interesting to look back at some of the most popular ones.
I’m using site traffic as my proxy for popularity in today’s list, although I’m aware that it comes with some recency bias (since Study Club participants have grown steadily over time). Still, it’s a great starting point for revisiting some of the pieces I’m really proud of.
And if you don’t see one of your own personal favorites in the list, leave it in the comments! I’d love to hear from you.
Enjoy!
My iPad Pro photography workflow in 2021
This is the most comprehensive photography workflow tutorial that I’ve put together to-date. This is worth a read for anyone thinking of ditching the hard drives and cords and making the leap into a fully touch and cloud-based photography workflow.
Shooting watch photography with the iPhone 13 Pro Max
Believe it or not, mobile photographers make up a large portion of the watch community! So it’s not a surprise to see this tutorial high up on the popularity list since it takes a look at how an iPhone performs against some of our community’s favorite watch shot styles.
How I gained 10K followers in 10 months
This tutorial represents pretty much all my best practices when it comes to running and growing an Instagram account. While it’s not strictly about how to gain 10,000 followers, it does outline the principles and rituals I subscribed to on the journey toward hitting that milestone.
A beginner's guide to making Instagram reels
The dust on hashtag-gate has finally settled. But are reels still relevant? Yes. Does everyone have to start making reels? No. But are reels a lot of fun to make? Most definitely! This tutorial will give you a crash course on how to make your first reel.
5 ways for photographers to overcome creative blocks
It’s inevitable that everyone runs into some form of creative block at some point. If you haven’t yet, consider yourself lucky! For the rest of us, this tutorial takes a look at some of my favorite ways to get creatively unstuck.
8 watch shots to try when you're out of ideas
This one’s the mega prize pack of tutorials, as it secretly includes links to 8 of my favorite watch shot recipes! These are some of my favorite tutorials to share because they offer simple and approachable ways to produce high quality watch photos. Looking for inspiration? Make sure to check out my Reference Guides too!
11 household props to style your watch photos with
I was surprised to see this one make the list, but upon further reflection, I realized that finding props for a photo is actually pretty intimidating – when you don’t know where to look, that is. This tutorial should help with that as it offers some ideas for turning everyday household items into photogenic gold.
How to shoot low light watch photography
This is one of my favorite topics to write about because it’s often misunderstood and misinterpreted by most people. This tutorial explains 6 basic ideas that’ll help bust some of those myths and get you closer to nailing those dark and moody watch shots.
Damn good general photography advice
This is the tutorial for tips that just didn’t fit anywhere else but have been critical to the work that I do everyday. They may not fall into any particular category or topic, but they’ll fall perfectly into your daily rituals. They may be general, but I promise you, they’re damn good!
How to create beautiful flatlays with spatial relationships
If you know my work, you know I love flatlays! It’s a topic I could write endlessly about, but this particular tutorial focuses on a specific concept that I brought with me from my roots in design. Turns out a little bit of theory can go a long way toward creating a lot of beautiful flatlays.
Thanks for joining this edition of Study Club! Keep on creating beautiful things and don't forget to tag #watchstudies to share them with them community!