Hypest Watches with Thomas Brown
The Hypest Watches of 2023 for British GQ
“The stars aligned with this project, all the things I have been experimenting with all coming together at once. Dreamy….The inspiration came from a visit to see the Hilma Af Klint exhibit at the Tate…Recom Farmhouse made everything work, everything I threw at you perfected with style and apparent ease!
These new (to me,,, ok tech bro!) tools have opened the flood gates for creativity. For this shoot I worked with some mega people to mix IRL sets by the brilliance that is Paulina_Piipponen (and props from my collection) with AI generated assets. THE hypest of watches all shot at my studio in London with Rhys Thorpe & Tom Skinner.
Augmented together by the ever generous Recom Farmhouse“ – Thomas Brown
Technical approach: AI composited with photography.
These shots were made by compositing and retouching multiple plates which the photographer took of the watches, combining with the AI elements, adding post FX and grading.
Thomas generated the AI elements before the watch shoot, so he was able to shoot the watches against the printed AI image to help with some subtle reflections.
The AI was edited to make it work for each image, with a specifics approach for each shot. Some were simple – just cut out onto a new background, generate a shadow for the AI to make it feel more 3 dimensional and colour balance the elements together. Others needed to be cut out, feel transparent, be reshaped or even exist on a different colour background. For instance in the case of the crystal, all the black needed to be removed.
The watches were retouched and graded to our usual high standards for a still life watch shoot, and the results featured in GQ:
“The watch world has never been so unpredictable – Rolex dropping emoji date windows? Richard Mille’s candy coloured lexes? Pixellated dials?Rather than leaning on the archive, watchmakers are embracing an influx of fresh ideas and targeting a younger collector…” – British GQ
Photographer:Thomas Brown
Post Artists :Kate Brown, Maria Luisa Calosso, Aljaz Bezjak
