Posted on Dec.14, 2010, under Michigan

(Nikon D700, 28-300mm at 300mm, ISO 200, Exposure 1/125th sec @ f/5.6)

Just down the road from where I took yesterday’s image is a small cemetery. I’ve always felt odd about photographing in a cemetery, but I do find old headstones to be interesting. I suppose it is somewhat cliché to shoot a cemetery in winter, but with a blustery snowstorm going on around me, it just seemed like the right thing to do! The wind was really nasty and cold so I didn’t spend a lot of time here. I tried various angles and focal lengths and ended up liking this one the best.

I just received my copy of OnOne Software’s Perfect Photo Suite so I was anxious to try out a couple of things. The first thing I did was adjust the crop in Lightroom and darken the blacks somewhat. I then took the shot into Photoshop where I used Silver Efex Pro to do a black and white conversion. I upped the structure and then used the opacity slider to bring back just a bit of color to the image. I liked the color of the headstone and I didn’t want to lose it completely. I also used some edge effects to create a stronger vignette and to burn the edges of the image. I finished the image using Focal Point 2 to increase the blurring surrounding the main headstone a little bit.

(click either image to view in lightbox mode)

Thoughts, comments or questions?

Copyright © 2010 James W. Howe – All rights reserved.

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4 Comments

  • Jim Denham says:
    This is awesome James! Love the treatment!
  • Absolutely love this. The movement in the snow is awesome!
  • Susan Roth says:
    This is an awesome photograph, Jim. Personally, I find cemetaries quite interesting. There is a little one near the quarry where we were foxhunting this year. Susan Mefford and I saw it quickly as we galloped past and I went back to investigate further. I need to take some paper and do some rubbings as the wording is all worn down. Most of the stones are broken, but it would be interesting to know who was laid to rest there.

    Susan

  • JB says:
    I love the b&w conversion. A brilliant shot and terrific processing

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