With the clocks due to change, we asked our photography team to share how they photographed the stunning timepieces in The Clockmakers' Museum at the Science Museum. Lead photographer Isidora Bojovic Bell shares how the team documented the oldest clock and watch collection in the world.
Founded in London by Royal Charter in 1631, the Clockmakers’ Company began assembling its collection of clocks, watches, and extraordinary objects in 1814. The Clockmakers’ Museum includes works by many of the greatest names in horology from John Harrison to George Daniels. Since 2015, The Clockmakers’ Museum has been on display at the Science Museum.
The Clockmakers’ Museum at the Science Museum.
With many delicate timepieces in The Clockmakers’ Museum, the photography team worked with its Curator, Anna Rolls, and agreed that photography would take place on the gallery for pieces too large to be easily removed from display, and in our photography studio for pieces that required customised lighting setups and handling. We also agreed to photograph everything to a white background to match the existing images of timepieces in the Clockmakers’ Museum.
Watch by Daniel Quare c.1712, contained in a painted polychrome enamel case signed “Les Frères Huaud” with a yellow enamel painted interior. The Huaud family were Geneva-based enamellers, known for their use of vibrant colours in their beautiful artworks.
Silver pair-cased verge escapement watch with silver sun and moon dial by Humphry Adamson, London.
The project kicked off with the longcase clocks already on display in the gallery. The team had to find inventive solutions to a few challenges this posed: the gallery’s layout meant some clocks were close to each other, which made manoeuvring and setting-up equipment a challenge. Also there were many reflections from nearby objects – clocks and watches are often made up of highly reflective materials such as glass or metals – a challenge to be overcome. While post-processing (editing photographs after they have been taken) can solve many undesirable reflection issues, the team tried to compensate for these issues at the time while ensuring accurate images were still captured efficiently.
Most issues were resolved by combining several images into one final photograph. We used specialist camera lenses to bypass the challenged of other showcases nearby, and unwanted reflections and shadows were corrected with the use of white cards and translucent panels, as you can see below in the process of capturing the astronomical longcase clock by Roland Jarvis.
Roland Jarvis was an artist based in Hastings, England, who also had an interest in engineering, and took up clockmaking when he was in his forties. This complicated clock has a modern design whilst still retaining the proportions and elegance of a traditional clock. It also has a whole host of complications – features beyond basic time telling – like the time of sunrise and sunset, the position of the sun and moon relative to the zodiac, and even features a planetarium.
Finally, all images were carefully separated from the original setting in the post-production and placed on pure white background (see images below).
For the photography in our studio, we used the focus stacking technique, which means capturing multiple images with varying depths of field and combining them in a ‘stack’ for perfect front-to-back focus. As the team carried out this photography, we noticed a link between the object’s size and the number of images in a focus stack: the smaller the object was, the more photographs needed to be taken to achieve the perfect image – as many as 120 per watch!
Our final way of working consisted of several stages. The base lighting had to be a soft and even, particularly for highly reflective timepieces. The team used light tents and translucent panels (which you can see all around the photographer in the image below) to avoid reflections of the studio and equipment in use.
While soft lights were better for minimising shadows and reflections on the object, harder and more focused lights were introduced for accentuating details. We controlled flare and light spread to reach the level of light intensity needed for each photograph.
The shape and texture of the timepieces varied greatly. By adding an additional light directly from the side, we were able to emphasize the texture, especially on watches with engravings and fine relief. You can see this in the images below of this 17th century French watch: the first two (left and centre) show the difference between soft and side light with the final and the third image (right) showing the final result, when the two images were combined in post-production.
Watch in an octagonal silver case by Robert Grebauval.
Once the setup was fully customised, a sequence of images was taken in quick succession as seen in the image below. We then use specialist software to group all images of the same object (seen on the left screen) and process the images to achieve perfect focus throughout the image to bring out all the delicate details of this pocket watch.
The early 1600s saw a rise in the number of watches produced in Europe, like the one pictured above. As they were not the best timekeepers, so their design concentrated on form and decoration. This type of watch was hung from a cord, around the neck or tied to the waist, and could be octagonal or oval in shape. The technique of engraving was often used to decorate the dial and case. This involved the use of a sharp tool to cut grooves into the surface metal. These lines and grooves would catch the light differently to the top surface, allowing an image to appear. This makes it a beautiful object to look at in person – but particularly tricky to capture all the engraved surfaces on camera.
Once the final image was created, the background was carefully cut out and corrected to pure white, with about 40% of the original shadow recovered to visually ground each subject.
Working on this project has helped us change the procedures we use to capture photographs. We now have several thoroughly tested lighting setups for objects made from reflective materials, which lead to consistent high quality results. We also now use focus stacking as our standard practice when working with small objects.
You can see more of the new images we have captured on our website.
Visitors to the Clockmakers Museum can now try four new interactive clockwork mechanisms which show some of the many ways clockwork mechanisms can also create sound and make things move, using gears, cams and levers.
One of the world’s most valuable watches is also currently on display in Versailles: Science and Splendour. Named ‘Marie Antoinette’ after the queen who was meant to wear it, the No.160 watch by Abraham-Louis Breguet is made of exquisite precious materials and represents the pinnacle of artistic ingenuity and intricate engineering. This stunning watch is on display until Monday 21 April. Book tickets here.