wparthur

I would like to hear suggestions from experience for taking tombstone pictures. Good references would be appreciated.

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

As art, or for documentation? As art, I like to convert to monochrome, and like to shoot when shadows start getting long.

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PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

Light is our language. So look for interesting light falling on tombstones. I have many in my B&W film days. You can also set up a remote flash at an angle to accent the carvings in the granite.
Hope Cemetery is a cemetery in Barre, Vermont. The city calls itself the "Granite Capital of the World", and the cemetery is known for the superb granite craftsmanship on its memorials and tombstones. Consider a trip if you are into Tombstones. These are world class in the USA
https://vermonter.com/hope-cemetery/

Welcome to the forum. Look forward to seeing some of your images.

Benzzeze Loc: Tucson, Arizona

If you're looking to try and capture the tombstone characters IE people that dress up as the historical figures use a long lens around 400 and you can get them in character. If you're looking to shoot at Boot Hill the cemetery I would shoot it early mornings. I have taken photos of the characters many many time about twice a year. You can also get some good character pictures at the gun shows and other plays that they have.

wparthur

Documentation. I get requests for Find a Grave postings. Would also like to hear suggestions for preparing markers before shooting.

Thanks

Benzzeze Loc: Tucson, Arizona

Oops! I thought you were looking for information about going and shooting at Tombstone Arizona, the town that was too tough to die!

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

Go low, with something like a Platypod or your tripod with legs as low as you can go. Shoot from front and make sure there are no shadows obscuring the enscription.

achesley Loc: SW Louisiana

I've done quite a bit of this for friends in the different memorial sites. Some markers are really hard to make come out. Take multiple shots from different angles on the hard to read ones and still I have to play with some in LR to get them readable. Best thing is to just get out there an practice and after they are on your computer screen , you will see the results. Have fun!

Morning Star Loc: West coast, North of the 49th N.

Take a bottle of water and a soft brush with you. Do not use any shaving cream, acids, or other, that sometimes is recommended to clean grave markers and take better photos. They may help your photo for the moment, but they also help in faster decay of the grave markers.
Have a look here: https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+clean+gravestones&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b

Errickcameron

May sound morbid but i have done quite a bit of cemetery photography outings in the past. You can get some photos with super emotional impact. Go at the golden hour. I always make sure that I have a wide angle lens and it is a fun place to play around with a Lensbaby. It is also a good place for close-ups.

AircraftGuru

If you are wanting to be able to read/document what is on old tombstones which are eroded to the point of being difficult to be legible .... my wife and I had heard about using a piece of chalk (like was used on the school blackboards decades ago) .... we used yellow sidewalk chalk ... and place the long side of it on the surface of the tombstone and rubbing it over the surface .... the chalk doesn’t go into the engraved letters and dates .... we tried it and it worked ... and future thunderstorm rains will wash the chaulk off .... my wife and I along with her 4 siblings and 2 nephews and a niece toured 6 of their ancestral cemeteries in rural NE Ohio .... and used this method only on those tombstones which were not very legible .... and it worked ... I was documenting everyting with my Nikon DSLR .... and my wife’s nephew used my digital camcorder to capture his mom, aunts, uncles memories as they were standing at their ancestral tombstones ... and at each tombstone he would also scan over to the entrance .... so someone watching the eventual DVD 100 years from now could see where the tombstone is in the cemetery .... and back at the car ... I used the camcorder to zoom in on the GPS .... and zoomed the GPS in and out .... so someone later could find the cemetery .... the oldest cemetery we were at was a family plot on the edge of a farmer’s field .... on a gravel road ... there was no church built in the area yet. The bottom line was that I made 22 sets of Photo Discs and DVD’s to pass out at their next family gathering .... for each of my wife’s generation and the next generation. And I used disc’s with a white printable surface and an Epson printer and software to make and print the labels using an ink which Epson says will last up to 200 years.

Mister H Loc: Michigan

I take them for Find A Grave site as well as my genealogy. I’ve learned time of day, type of stone and how the engraving is done make it challenging at times. So far I’ve mostly used a 18-55mm lens for tight spots. I’m still newer at this and will see what else works in the other answers. Glad you asked about this.

BlueMorel Loc: Southwest Michigan

Here's a link for cleaning gravestones. They can be easily damaged depending on age and materials. Even making rubbings can damage the most vulnerable.
https://dengarden.com/landscaping/How-to-Clean-a-Headstone-the-Proper-Way

From my own experience photographing my ancestors' stones, besides cleaning if necessary, lighting will be the key. Not all sides of a gravestone will have good lighting so you might want to bring along a reflector of some sort. I use white foamboard for ease of carrying, plus it can be used to shade if sunlight is too bright.

BTW, if a graveyard has been vandalized, record what you can. My great-grandfather's gravestone was vandalized and some organization replaced the original gravestone with the wrong birthdates. I would have like to have a photo of the original, even if it was broken, because my great-aunt's name was originally scratched into the stone, not engraved as it is now. Somehow, to me, the replacement just doesn't have the same connection to me. Also, I have visited cemeteries where old stones were lying about on the ground near the edge of the cemetery, either moved at one time or from vandalism, who knows?

DonB Loc: Port Royal , Tn

These old stones may face away from the sun when you are there. Be open to making two or three trips to get the best light. Sometimes an off-camera flash just grazing the side of the stone will help a lot. I too, shot requests from Find A Grave. Mostly, it is the old weathered stone the requester is interested in! Read the recommendations for photographing the stones that F-a-G has posted on site. They helped me a lot. Chalking the stone is not recommended, if my old brain is remembering right. A friend of mine uses flour instead.

jak86094

First, older cemeteries are fantastic sources. In London, we were walking through a small park buried between buildings near our hotel and noticed that it was lined with large old headstones around the outside. Old lichenous stones, lots of history. Later, in Argentina, we visited the cemetery where Eva Peron is encrypted. Taking up about a city block next to a beautiful church, the meandering paths are lined with hundreds of family crypts. Many of the crypts are still used by the families, and many of the families are important historical players in Argentine politics and history. The crypts are accompanied by statues, enscriptions, and interesting architecture. All of these features made for interesting photographs. Also visited a pioneer cemetery in Alberta, Canada with wooden monuments mixed in with the stone, and another in Oregon laid at the base of a power pole where the tombstones were buries down in blackberry vines. I think finding historical graveyards is the most interesting. In Boston, there’s one a couple of blocks behind the Old North Church where a number of famous American historical figures are buried. I think showing history makes photos of tombstones interesting. That may be family history, local history, or even national or military history.

jak