I take it that by "these", you mean the statues rather than the photos, since you know pretty well when the latter were taken... :-)
The Melatenfriedhof was opened in 1810, and has been open ever since then. New graves are being added all the time, often quite close to the old ones -- the contrast can be quite striking. Most of the statues and crosses I liked dated from the mid to late nineteenth century. The slanted cross you see above was one of the older things in the cemetery; it's from 1834. I believe most of the angels I photographed were from the 1880s and 1890s, but I'm not certain about that.
Thank you! Yeah, I'm partial to that last one myself. I love slanted crosses, and there's something about mid-nineteenth-century writing which I find irresistible. But then we all have our weird fetishes... :-)
You do? That's interesting. I'm not sure I do. Which is to say, I think I do, but I wanted more shadows and more bright spots. There just don't seem to be enough of them to bring the picture to life. As I said, though, it was an incredibly hard statue to take good photos of. I tried several different angles, under several different lighting conditions, and just couldn't seem to get it right.
It occurs to me now that it might have been useful to try to increase the contrast a bit more. So perhaps I should go back to Photoshop and see if cranking up the contrast makes any difference...
I agree with what name, the shadows add a nice little something. They may not be as dramatic as you would have liked, elaine, but the inetrplay on the wall directly behind the white lady's head is very active and interesting, and nicely balances the intricate stone work folds of the dress, and the darker lettering on the far right.
Oh, I totally agree. The shadows are nice. I just wanted them to be more dramatic. You know I'm a drama queen at heart. :-)
As I said, I think I may redo this one with increased contrast at some point. I think that'll make it more to my liking. More like the pic I saw of it before I went to Cologne. :-)
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The Melatenfriedhof was opened in 1810, and has been open ever since then. New graves are being added all the time, often quite close to the old ones -- the contrast can be quite striking. Most of the statues and crosses I liked dated from the mid to late nineteenth century. The slanted cross you see above was one of the older things in the cemetery; it's from 1834. I believe most of the angels I photographed were from the 1880s and 1890s, but I'm not certain about that.
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It occurs to me now that it might have been useful to try to increase the contrast a bit more. So perhaps I should go back to Photoshop and see if cranking up the contrast makes any difference...
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As I said, I think I may redo this one with increased contrast at some point. I think that'll make it more to my liking. More like the pic I saw of it before I went to Cologne. :-)
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