On 1/26/19 8:32 AM, Davoud wrote:
Peter Jason:
Sometimes, on a sunny day, I like to visit
cemeteries to photograph tombstones.

However, the text on most old headstones is hard
to read.

Is there some PShop trick to enhance the writing &
engravings?
Peter

Ken Hart"
Are you going for 'art' or research?

If your goal is legibility, you want the light coming across the face of
the stone, so that the engravings cast a shadow. Since it's fairly
difficult (and illegal in some areas!) to move the stone for better
lighting, you are stuck with waiting for the sun to be in a better spot...

That is one way to do it. I'm not a habitual tombstone photographer,
but I had occasion last autumn to make some such photos. I knew the
challenge going in and decided not to place myself at the mercy of the
solar angle, but to make my own sunlight. I used a 2-stop diffuser and
I skimmed the surface of the granite with a Profoto B1 flash. It
required a couple of trial pics to get the flash angle right, and I
ended up with natural-looking light (no harsh shadows) and legible
engraving, even on one worn stone dating to 1812.

"Skim the surface" is exactly the point that I failed to make. Thank you!

Where do you suppose that it *is* legal to go into a cemetery and move
tombstones about?

I suspect that it is pretty much universally illegal to randomly move
tombstones, but since I don't know as an absolute certainty, I prefer to
hedge my bets. If I were say that it's always illegal, some
anal-retentive (with no shift key) would cite an exception somewhere,
and we would be off to the races!

I find that it's usually safer to avoid speaking in absolutes. Even now!

--
Ken Hart