Marietta National Cemetary (by Uber Novice!)

[Michelle Brooks Photography]

I am so new to serious photography it's not funny, but my husband, a man with more love than sense :D bought me a Canon 50D this year so I felt compelled to dig in and try to be worthy of the machine. I took several photos at a national cemetary in Marietta, GA last month & was pretty pleased with the results. In fact, I entered two into a local juried art show and God love the clueless, one got juried in and won an award! I'd love to get some (as much as you can give!) flat out honest criticism on how I could've made this shot better. I'm going to try my hand at linking to the photo because it is large, but here's the info: it was shot in the evening around 7pm, dwindling light, Canon EOS 50D, EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS @ f/5.6, 1000 ISO, 1/50 sec, AV mode, handheld. In Photoshop Elements I converted it to black and white, adjusted the brightness and contrast, clone stamped out a piece of machinery, and applied "crossing down" filter light effects. The machinery was a tractor diggin up old sod in order to lay down new, and the "mist" is actually a dust cloud. I love silver gelatin photographs, and I was trying to get a similar look. i am very inept in Photoshop, so I'd love to hear any suggestion on other things I could've done to the photo. Thanks in advance for all your help!:grin:
http://s967.photobucket.com/albums/ae160/chellyroo/Marietta%20National%20Cemetary/?action=view&current=graveyardcontrastcrossingdown.jpg&newest=1394741

[jetcode]

The image is nicely framed, the stones are a little soft. You have an eye and now it's a matter of coming up to speed with the tools of the trade.

[Michelle Brooks Photography]

The image is nicely framed, the stones are a little soft. You have an eye and now it's a matter of coming up to speed with the tools of the trade.

Thanks! What would make the headstone less "soft", either in the camera settings or PP?

[jeppoy]

it's better in camera then some tweaking in PP...if you don't have IS, use a tripod......

[Michelle Brooks Photography]

it's better in camera then some tweaking in PP...if you don't have IS, use a tripod......
So the softness is actually from camera shake?

[jeppoy]

either that, out of focus or combination of both....

[joedlh]

Nice framing. You might try it with a little less of the trees. They're taking up a large percentage of real estate just for framing.

Two things about the soft gravestones. It looks like the foreground and the leafless branches are in better focus. You could stop down the aperture to increase your depth of field, or choose a focal point appropriate for the part that you want in crisp focus. I can't say for sure that it's camera shake. The other thing is that the farther gravestones were in mist. That will soften them too.

[Michelle Brooks Photography]

Nice framing. You might try it with a little less of the trees. They're taking up a large percentage of real estate just for framing.

Two things about the soft gravestones. It looks like the foreground and the leafless branches are in better focus. You could stop down the aperture to increase your depth of field, or choose a focal point appropriate for the part that you want in crisp focus. I can't say for sure that it's camera shake. The other thing is that the farther gravestones were in mist. That will soften them too.
Thanks, Joe! Good advice.