Thread: Photographing Razors

Well, I've been experimenting a little more. I took some dark green spray paint to my flowers and styrofoam to darken the background a bit.

I also played with different aperture settings to see how they turned out. It seems, that for my setup, f4 puts the razor in good focus and still gives the background a heavy blur.

Here is my most recent attempt with a Joseph Mappin 8/8 wedge:

I take a simple approach to my knife and razor photography. Just natural daylight (window light) and a chunk of wood as a background. It's not perfectly consistent, and the light intensity is low, but it's easy and looks good.



The biggest issue with this method is getting enough light on the sensor. The only solution to this is long exposures with a tripod. My exposures are usually about 2 seconds long.

The uniformity of a light box can actually be a hindrance in some situations. The light is (intentionally) flat, and can obscure details like chatoyancy. Window light has its own problems too. It is mostly from one direction, so shadows can be somewhat pronounced. This problem can be easily solved using white reflector cards strategically placed around the subject. By having only one primary light source and one (or two) secondary sources, you can custom tailor the light to accentuate the subject. Simply moving the reflectors around will illuminate shadows, control reflections, and accentuate chatoyancy.





Phillip