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Tips on organizing collection

I would like to photograph and catalogue my razor collection. Just a fun project to occupy my time. I have around 100 SR, DE, SE razors and accessories e.g. blade cases, etc. Do you have any tips on photographing a collection? Making a light box to get consistent photos? Any suggestions for creating a catalogue? What are the important items of information to document?
 
Excellent idea. I suggest you organize your stuff chronologically as that is how my mind works.
 
As with all antiques: provenance. Where does it come from, who has owned it, how did it come into your possession. Its history, simply put.
 
For the catalogue if you are using a computer there are photo collection programs that let you tag your photos any way you want,so say for a razor you could tag it by what it is,the brand name, type, year, condition. Pretty much any catagory you can think of. That way you can find pics razors of same make, year and quality very fast.
 
Great suggestions all around. I will likely give each item a unique identifier number/letter combination that will appear in the photo and will correspond to a spreadsheet entry. I also like the idea of entering information about where I found it (which antique store), extent of restoration required, cost, information about manufacturers etc., etc. This could take a while...
 
What photography equipment do you have?
iPhone and a cut out cardboard box for photo box, lined with white paper, and a couple of clip on reading lights and a table lamp for lighting. Not very fancy, I admit, but I am trying to achieve consistency. I am open to suggestions.
 
iPhone and a cut out cardboard box for photo box, lined with white paper, and a couple of clip on reading lights and a table lamp for lighting. Not very fancy, I admit, but I am trying to achieve consistency. I am open to suggestions.

I haven't done anything like this with an iPhone, but you should be OK taking this approach. Your light output may or may not be sufficient. If it isn't you can built a little tent using this white cloth or translucent plastic film around your razor outside and let natural daylight provide the needed light. This may require you to be in direct sunlight, not shade. Alternatively, you can place the razor on a piece of white paper and lift the rear piece of the paper so you have a seemless background. Hope that helps.
 
OK, I lied above. I've taking many pics of razors using my iPhone. I just haven't tried doing it with anything beyond ambient light. However, I suspect it's quite doable and you should be able to get good if not great results.

One thing to keep in mind is that an all white box or foreground/background can fool the camera's meter, even a "real" camera's meter. So your pics might come out looking a bit dark. They're a way to compensate for that if it happens.
 
Good project

Get some sort of photo editor with metadata app for your iPhone so that you can tag each photo with keywords and descriptions. Much better than having to maintain a separate database or spreadsheet, imo.

Another option, to photograph each one and then upload to some cloud host like like Pinterest, Flicker or Imgur, which also allows you to add descriptors and keywords.

Have fun!
 
iPhone and a cut out cardboard box for photo box, lined with white paper, and a couple of clip on reading lights and a table lamp for lighting. Not very fancy, I admit, but I am trying to achieve consistency. I am open to suggestions.
for a big project like this, you want a real camera, not an iPhone. Be sure and get one that is optimized for Macro-photography. A small tripod and a remote trigger will be useful, too.

Spend some time with the owners' manual, especially read up on the sections that cover calibrating the exposure meter for White Balance so your colors are accurate.

For lighting, you want to avoid glare and shadows. Flourescent tubes will be good, and build yourself a light box that will evenly light the object from all sides. I would make the background Neutral Gray. Get Full Spectrum bulbs, also known as Daylight or Natural or Reveal, depending on brand.

Although this sounds like a lot of new gear, it's not going to be that expensive. You can probably put together everything you need for about $250, but that will easily give you professional looking pictures that will be almost impossible to get with an iPhone.
 
Good suggestions everyone...thanks. I have been browsing some new digital cameras...and some new lighting...

Question: regarding angles of photos. Do I want to aim for a standard, item for sale, side-on 2-D shot of the open SR in the usual way, or do I want a more 3-D side on angle with the razor on a small mount...3/4 angle...something like that? Any suggestions?
 
for a big project like this, you want a real camera, not an iPhone. Be sure and get one that is optimized for Macro-photography. A small tripod and a remote trigger will be useful, too.

Spend some time with the owners' manual, especially read up on the sections that cover calibrating the exposure meter for White Balance so your colors are accurate.

For lighting, you want to avoid glare and shadows. Flourescent tubes will be good, and build yourself a light box that will evenly light the object from all sides. I would make the background Neutral Gray. Get Full Spectrum bulbs, also known as Daylight or Natural or Reveal, depending on brand.

Although this sounds like a lot of new gear, it's not going to be that expensive. You can probably put together everything you need for about $250, but that will easily give you professional looking pictures that will be almost impossible to get with an iPhone.
No need to drop $$$ on new camera gear (unless of course you really want to).....
spend some time working with the gear you have now.....
this was shot in natural light, S5 and processed with a free app.

...just sayin'.......
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