Wednesday, June 2, 2021

Jamming with the Duke

On Friday, I took the afternoon off, to do some photography in the Palazzo Ducale di Sassuolo . It was one of the Este family's palaces. They Ruled an area  of the Po valley that stretched from Ferrara down to Reggio Emilia.

Sassuolo is a sprawling, extremely ugly industrial town near Modena, and it is the heart of the Italian ceramics industry. From the outside even the palace does not give any hint of the beauty of the interiors.

I have visited and photographed this place before, but I wanted to try and perfect a technique that combines using a shift lens hand held ( photographic dogma states these lenses are to be used with the camera on a tripod).

Using the viewfinder level and surprisingly efficient IBIS in my Nikon Z7, I am starting to get some good results with this combo in places where tripods are forbidden. It cuts down on a lot of drastic keystone correction. A bit of minor correction in post, is mostly all that is needed. I also get to compose in the viewfinder, without having to think about the extra space to trim of in post when key stone correction is done with software.

I was struck by the musicians in the frescoes in the main hall striking poses more in line with Jazz  rather than the classical music of the time.

The big problem photographing monuments right now is not the crowds, but the visually intrusive anti Covid signage that has emerged everywhere.

Palazzo Ducale di Sassuolo


Palazzo Ducale di Sassuolo

Palazzo Ducale di Sassuolo

Palazzo Ducale di Sassuolo

Palazzo Ducale di Sassuolo

Palazzo Ducale di Sassuolo

Palazzo Ducale di Sassuolo

Palazzo Ducale di Sassuolo

Palazzo Ducale di Sassuolo

Palazzo Ducale di Sassuolo

Palazzo Ducale di Sassuolo

Palazzo Ducale di Sassuolo

Palazzo Ducale di Sassuolo

Palazzo Ducale di Sassuolo

Palazzo Ducale di Sassuolo


Palazzo Ducale di Sassuolo

Palazzo Ducale di Sassuolo

Palazzo Ducale di Sassuolo