Fabergé: A Brilliant Vision at the HMNS #pixelparty

A big thanks to Fayza at the HMNS for inviting us to photograph the beautiful Fabergé exhibit. The Pixel Parties that they have from time to time are a great opportunity to photograph works we don’t get to photograph during a regular visit and it’s a great chance for you guys to see the work and go see it yourself in person. I’m a guy so I’m not into jewelry but even I was impressed.

One problem with this type of photography is that you really need a lens with macro capabilities because with subjects these small, you have to get in close and regular lenses aren’t designed to focus that closely up. I still did ok with backing up and with 24 MP’s on the D600, cropping a little doesn’t hurt anything, but I think I would get some extension tubes some time in the near future. A macro lens would be better but I have already blown up my budget on lenses for the next 2 years and given how good my lenses are, an extension tube should be just fine.

Techniques used? I did long exposure on all of them at around f/8-f/16. Why? Because with macro work you have a very narrow depth of field so forget about going f/2.8 if you want the entire piece to be in focus. I also used a tripod, shot with the mirror up, and used a corded remote and the mirror flipped up on the camera. Why? (sorry my niece asks “why?” anytime I answer a question so I’m used to it) Because that bit of stabilization is the difference between a sharp picture and a tact sharp picture.

Everything was also behind a glass case so there was nothing that could have been done about reflections other than picking a better angle. I’m ok with this.

I think I should have stepped back one more step to allow the lens to focus on the necklace.

And a few more:

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