Before & After Graveyard

[Darder]

Was at a church last weekend and decided it'd be neat to take a photo. I normally never use Photoshop...too many buttons. I changed my mind for this one, I found a gravestone I liked but didn't like the background so well here it is.

Before


After


I hope those resized to appropriate size limit..

Anyways, first thing I did was to use the clone stamp tool in Photoshop and clone the sky over everything in the background. I accidentally took out that background tombstone as I was going clone happy. So I copied the original unedited image into a new layer that was situated underneath the layer I was editing and slowly erased my edited layer over the tombstone so that the lower layer one would come through.

Next I selected and copied a section the tombstone that was within the middle square and pasted it over the words to make it blank. Then I picked a font I liked, typed in my name and my date of birth and date of death. Morbid I know. I rasterized the text so I'd be able to manipulate it as an image, thats when I just messed around with different options to give it that concave look, I messed with it some more to make it look a bit weathered.

After this I sent it back to Lightroom and used some developer presets to make it black and white, add some vignetting. And well thats about it.

Please let me know what you think, again I'm not so good with the photoshoping this is one of the first times I've done this much work on a photo.

I posted the image at my blog Darder Photography at this post here

[GaryC]

I think it looks great.

I haven't even figuredout how to really use lightroom yet

So everything I do is photoshop and photomatix. (I'm an HDR junkie lol)

[derekspacelewis]

Looks much better than the first one, great job!

[Darder]

Originally Posted by GaryC

I think it looks great.

I haven't even figuredout how to really use lightroom yet

So everything I do is photoshop and photomatix. (I'm an HDR junkie lol)

i've wanted to play with HDR for a while since I've first heard of it, some realistic looking stuff but more surrealistic stuff then anything else but i dunno same reason i've put off playing in photoshop is why i haven't done anything with HDR

[Darder]

Originally Posted by derekspacelewis

Looks much better than the first one, great job!

Thanks it turned out a lot better then I thought possible. Its no wonder magazines use this program to trim the fat off women's thighs.

[GaryC]

HDR at its basic is pretty simple. Much easier than photoshop.

take 3 or more captures at varying exposures. I generally do -2 0 +2 use photomatix and let it do the work for you!

I'll post some shots I took in the woods. (I used True HDR for them)

[highlydope]

Originally Posted by GaryC

HDR at its basic is pretty simple. Much easier than photoshop.

take 3 or more captures at varying exposures. I generally do -2 0 +2 use photomatix and let it do the work for you!

I'll post some shots I took in the woods. (I used True HDR for them)

Everyone raves about photomatix. I have it and seem to get lousy results so I've been using PS CS5's new HDR feature or doing it the manual way in PS, both of which seem to yield better results that photomatix for me, but not great. Can you clue me into what settings you're getting good results with generally? Are you tone mapping? I realize it's different for every photo but just a general sense might put me on the right path.

Thanks,
HD.

[Christian Michael]

I’m aware this is going to go down like a lead balloon, but I’m sorry, I have to ask.

I’ve been looking at this thread for a few days now to see if anyone else sees what I see. I guess not, so I'm going to be the one to say I really don’t get it.

The work……your work in processing and the whole editing is nice. Don’t get me wrong you did a great job.

But why a baby propped up against a headstone, in a graveyard, with your profile name with a passed away date? Why would you even put that out there? AND on the Internet??? My birth certificate doesn’t have an expiration date on it and I would hate to think yours does either.

I know I'm going to come across as the bad guy and I'm seriously I’m not trying to be rude…I’m trying to GET the image.

[RenLee]

I guess I am with Micheal on this one, I don't get the image either. The editing is good but why take the photo in the first place?

[ednorm]

I looked at the picture in horror, I think the headstone idea was oddly morbid using his name as if he was dead but what really troubled me was the baby propped up against the headstone. It looked at the least very uncomfortable for the kid, my worry was what it it had fallen over on the child. Then there is the whole deep feeling , almost like a superstition type of thing of placing a baby on a tombstone which made me feel very uneasy.

ed