Cemetery Angel

[wyogirl]

Hey all... I have tweaked this photo in Lightroom. I'm interested in some critique on the photo as a whole. I'm not sure about the tilt. I did it that way to get the whole angel without getting the photo of the deceased that was on the grave marker. Thoughts??

 

[DGMPhotography]

Focus and color looks great and the tilt isn't too shabby either, but could you post the original for comparison?

 

[wyogirl]

This is the original

 

[manaheim]

Cemetery angels are an obsession of mine. We had a lively debate about them recently.

On a purely technical nature is looks like you shot into the sun which washes out the pic a bit... if intentional, ok, but something to keep in mind.

On a non-technical My -personal- opinion is this...

Pictures have to have some kind of impact. A single image of a statue is just a capture of someone else's work, in a scene that you generally are not going to have a lot of control over. There's no real emotional impact. If you also happen to shoot a picture of a very NEW statue, then there isn't a lot of interest in textures and materials because they're just too new. (texture is another way to develop interest)

Now what I do with my angels, is I essentially try to pose them as if they were real people. I look for the angle that works best and I shoot that. (in one of them I actually brought a 10' ladder to the site and stood on it... you should have seen the looks I got that day)

I also try to get times of day or a season that is going to give us something interesting for the background. Fall is an obvious one, but in another I actually ran down to the cemetery when there was a MAJOR storm coming in and got an AMAZING sky.

You have to find what works for you, but by and large... pictures of statues tend to fall pretty flat. Even the ones I work very hard to capture, are mostly enjoyed by me. Very few people see them and say "wow". There are a few people who love them, but they're pretty rare.

I'd post mine here as examples but I don't want to steal your thunder. You can find them on my site if you're bored.

 

[wyogirl]

manaheim, I'd love to see your pics, but I looked at your google+ page and didn't see anything. What is your site?
Thanks for the comments and critique btw.

 

[manaheim]

It's www.impeng.com .

Here are my girls, though...

Mary...

Foisy...

And Dempsey...

I also have Catherine somewhere, but I'm not super happy with her.

 

[manaheim]

BTW, Mary was taken with off camera flash and an umbrella...during a serious set of raging winds. That was probably one of the hardest shots I've ever taken. lol

 

[Geaux]

This reminds me, I need to get out into the Cemetery again. Everytime I've gone, I loved it.

If you are interested, my cemetery shots.

New Orleans Cemeteries - a set on Flickr

 

[minicoop1985]

I like the story it tells. Shows that someone felt strongly enough about that person to go to the grave and hang those rosaries (I think). Definitely tells a story.

 

[Dagwood56]

Cemetery angels are an obsession of mine. We had a lively debate about them recently.

On a purely technical nature is looks like you shot into the sun which washes out the pic a bit... if intentional, ok, but something to keep in mind.

On a non-technical My -personal- opinion is this...

Pictures have to have some kind of impact. A single image of a statue is just a capture of someone else's work, in a scene that you generally are not going to have a lot of control over. There's no real emotional impact. If you also happen to shoot a picture of a very NEW statue, then there isn't a lot of interest in textures and materials because they're just too new. (texture is another way to develop interest)

Now what I do with my angels, is I essentially try to pose them as if they were real people. I look for the angle that works best and I shoot that. (in one of them I actually brought a 10' ladder to the site and stood on it... you should have seen the looks I got that day)

I also try to get times of day or a season that is going to give us something interesting for the background. Fall is an obvious one, but in another I actually ran down to the cemetery when there was a MAJOR storm coming in and got an AMAZING sky.

You have to find what works for you, but by and large... pictures of statues tend to fall pretty flat. Even the ones I work very hard to capture, are mostly enjoyed by me. Very few people see them and say "wow". There are a few people who love them, but they're pretty rare.

I'd post mine here as examples but I don't want to steal your thunder. You can find them on my site if you're bored.

^^^^I agree with this. I have quite a collection of cemetery statues myself. Here's one example of mine. It was originally sized for facebook.