For a quick choil shot I hold the knife with my left hand by the handle, use a light color cutting board as a 'background' and allow the tip to touch the board for support. I would be facing window so I would be getting a rather diffuse light from the other side as where the choil is facing what gives me more contrast. between the choil and the background.
I use my EM5II with 12-40 lens at 40 mm focal length (gentle telephoto) and around f/5.6 or f/8.0 F-stop to get a little bit more depth of field to get the whole choil in focus (if I do not manage to get the camera and choil parallel or if the choil is curved). It may help the AF to focus on the choil to tilt the knife to one side and then turn the photo in post processing (Lightroom 6 in my case).
If I want to make a more controlled choil shot (or photograph more than one knife at a time) I would put the knife blade-up on a cutting board (some knives with octagonal WA handles do not need any support, most however do - I use whatever I have at hand in the kitchen) and use the wall (tiles) as light color background.
In general I would boost local contrast in PP to make the choil stand out against the background.
This may not be the best way to photograph choils, but it works. What I also try to avoid is a direct light on the choil (in particular in combination with dark background) - depending how it is shaped and whether it is polished the choil may have a large variation in reflectance what may distort the final image of it. My second photo above is an example how reflection on a choil makes it hard to get an idea about its shape.
I use my EM5II with 12-40 lens at 40 mm focal length (gentle telephoto) and around f/5.6 or f/8.0 F-stop to get a little bit more depth of field to get the whole choil in focus (if I do not manage to get the camera and choil parallel or if the choil is curved). It may help the AF to focus on the choil to tilt the knife to one side and then turn the photo in post processing (Lightroom 6 in my case).
If I want to make a more controlled choil shot (or photograph more than one knife at a time) I would put the knife blade-up on a cutting board (some knives with octagonal WA handles do not need any support, most however do - I use whatever I have at hand in the kitchen) and use the wall (tiles) as light color background.
In general I would boost local contrast in PP to make the choil stand out against the background.
This may not be the best way to photograph choils, but it works. What I also try to avoid is a direct light on the choil (in particular in combination with dark background) - depending how it is shaped and whether it is polished the choil may have a large variation in reflectance what may distort the final image of it. My second photo above is an example how reflection on a choil makes it hard to get an idea about its shape.
