Thread: Photographing Razors

I might chime in here as a former professional photographer.

In the studio one of the hardest things to photograph are reflective objects. The thing to remind yourself is, this blade is a mirror. It is always going to reflect something. I cant stop that, but I can control what it reflects. This is the point of the neat little lightboxes that others have shown. Not only do they soften the light but the provide a reflection of nothing, which basically makes the whole or part of the blade a spectral highlight. Looks nice and clean.

Also, opening the lens up and having a shallow depth of field is fine, but the bit that is in focus needs to be something you want your eye drawn to. My biggest criticism of your pictures (and I don't mean to be critical) is that there is no real point of focus. Everything is slightly soft and that just makes the razor disappear into the background.

I'll include this shot, not because it is a good photo, it was really just a quick snap so I could show someone my blade polish, but it sort of shows what I'm on about. Lens open, but focused on a part of the blade that has detail, the stamp. I control the reflection so it is of something I want, in this case to show how polished the blade is. I use one point light source (in this case just the sun) which looks most natural, and just a fill card to lighten the shadows.

Apart from the camera and lens, total equipment value = $0