Thread: Opinions on auction appearances.

Lightbox. Make it, use it, love it... he says while taking cellphone pics of razors on his dining room table...

I use a cheap square perfect light box ($45) that folds up into a 18"x18"x5" built in carrying case, the lights and extension cord slip into pockets on the case as well as the colored backgrounds. I use a desk top lamp on a book as additional top lighting if needed. My camera is my iphone 6. I transfer the photos to my ipad and use the free version of Adobe Photoshop Express for photo editing. I mostly increase the shadows to drop the background and use the eraser tool to take out any flecks of white that the background material seems to gather like crazy.

I enjoy taking the photos and simply copy what others have done in terms of composition, razor angles etc. My photos are mainly for my own enjoyment or sharing on shaving forums. I would drop out all the props and just feature the razor without using any photo editing other then cropping, so folks knew exactly what they were getting if I were shooting for an auction.

I also build 1/35th scale tamyia armor model kits and airbrush them, and the light box is absolutely necessary to make them look good. Attachment 247774Attachment 247775Attachment 247776

Originally Posted by Magpie

He sure is! I'm a wine maker by trade, so I get wine related gifts all the time. StuntKat was one of my favorites. Supposedly dates to the 40s. I dont have a light box, and the camera on my phone is problematic, so I hired SK as a focusing aid. Picture clarity is greatly improved over a flat shot.

I have two cameras, the one lets me focus manually and that makes it way easier. The auto focus needs some differential to focus. It does not do well with flat and shiny surfaces.

I saw stunt cat whilst browsing razors on the bay. He's a cool cat and all, but I would leave him out of the photos, he makes me less likely to look or buy.

Originally Posted by NittanyGator

I saw stunt cat whilst browsing razors on the bay. He's a cool cat and all, but I would leave him out of the photos, he makes me less likely to look or buy.

I've seen that too and I don't like it either. I love my cats but would not try to balance a razor on one of their heads or feet or whatever. I feel like that guy's cat is going to get hurt and/or the blade damaged. Makes me cringe when I see it on ebay.

Originally Posted by xiaotuzi

I've seen that too and I don't like it either. I love my cats but would not try to balance a razor on one of their heads or feet or whatever. I feel like that guy's cat is going to get hurt and/or the blade damaged. Makes me cringe when I see it on ebay.

I would never risk StuntKat OR a razor! For instance, the edge of the blade is NEVER actually over his head. He is actually behind the edge, but the lack of depth of field makes it appear that the blade is hanging over him like Damocles! <---not happening

Yeah, your StuntKat is cool (made of metal with corkscrew tail), I especially like the angle with the face reflected in the blade. I meant that I just don't care for the listings on ebay with the real cats "holding" razors. Somehow real live cats and open straight razors seems like a bad combination.