New Orleans Cemetery

Geaux · Oct 11, 2010

Took advantage of my day off today to do some shooting and went down to an area cemetery. I've been reading "Understanding Exposure" and decided to do this shoot in full manual mode, first time ever. I'm usually shooting in Aperture Mode, but I can definitely see the advantages of shooting in manual, plus it's more 'fun' :sexywink:

I also picked up a cheepy circular polarizer, my first filter, on the way there (imo, great pickup) Anyways, thoughts/comments, good and bad ... let er rip!

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6.

7. I did a little more 'shopping' to this one lol (Older vs Newer)

I know, the lighting wasn't very ideal, but I did with what I had lol. I also know I put up more images, than 'acceptable', so don't feel the need to comment on all. Any or 1 will do. Thanks for looking!!

Lake Lawn Cemetery (Oct '10) - a set on Flickr (Rest of the set here, some more silhouettes also)

Geaux · Oct 12, 2010

Morning bump, since it was posted pretty late last night.

Geaux · Oct 12, 2010

Last bump before I give up on trying to get ANY comment on these images.

Lazy Photographer · Oct 12, 2010

I've always wanted to visit there for photography. I like #2 and #7 best. I wonder how #7 would look as a b/w?

Geaux · Oct 13, 2010

You should definitely make it down here for a shoot at a cemetery. Surprisingly, I've had the camera for almost a year now and this was the first time I've made it out there for a shoot. I'll definitely be going back to others though because it was fun to just walk around and look at all the details and differences b/w the tombs.

As far as the B/W conversion, I might give it a try and see how it looks. I'm pretty satisfied how it is now though, but I'll give it a shot.

Thanks for being the ONLY one to actually comment lol. I was about to give up on these photos and say they're worthless.

pompomsa · Oct 13, 2010

Hi, Geaux!

First photo was nice and sad, while photo #6 was sweet! As with the 7th, you can try converting it to B&W then burn the white structure to give it some shape and mood, while dodging the darker structure just to lessen too much contrast from the former. This is just me, suggesting :sexywink:

Regards!

Studio7Four · Oct 13, 2010

Okay, these shots are definitely not worthless! A few of my thoughts:

1. I like that the marker and flowers caught your eye, I just don't like the cross and stone directly behind them competing for attention. I don't think blurring the background through shallower depth of field would necessarily help, and I can see that shooting the marker and flowers from another angle wouldn't have the same effect.

2. Love this image. Love the angle of the statue, the backlit silhouette, the use of dead space...

3. Not bad, though I feel it suffers in comparison to #2. There's something about the amount of roof that is shown that doesn't work for me. I think I might like it more had the angle or cropping been higher, so that you didn't see much of the roof besides the granite pedestal sticking up from the roof, or if you had gone lower and included a little more of the facade.

4. Doesn't really hit me either way, pro or con.

5. I like it. I think I would have included only the cross/roof on the left, the building on the right looks like an afterthought. (Alternatively, you could try landscape orientation and make the fact that there are two buildings there be the point of the image.) I also would have cheated in post and darkened the rest of the roof, so that the whole left building was in silhouette. If you get the opportunity to revisit this, I would try a shot in which the cross is a little more to the right (so it's not right on the edge), a little lower, and wait until you can get it backlit like this but have more cool clouds in the sky. (What, you can't control the weather?)

6. Again, I like that this detail caught your eye, but I don't like the background. Here I think you could get away with cranking up the aperture to blur the background and really set off the cherub.

7. Another excellent shot! I'm also curious how this would look as a B&W, but I love the subtle tones in this one so much I suspect it might actually lose some of its effect in B&W.

I haven't shot in a cemetery yet (it's on my list). One nice thing is that the subjects of these shots aren't going anywhere, so you can revisit and try new approaches any time.