The pastor emeritus of my family churched died suddenly on 04/25/07. I went to the funeral. He meant a lot to our church, the congregation and to my family and me. He was a very eloquent, intelligent and passionate speaker in his sermons and especially in his eulogies. I will never forget how wonderfully he eulogize my father which amazed me given the relatively short time that he knew him. He appreciated my singing at the church when I would come every so often to solo. I liked that.
He was a special and unique individual and we will all miss him very much. This image is my tribute to him and for my family church. We have not seen so many people in the church in decades. The church was filled to over flowing the sanctuary and choir pews and the narthex were used for extra seating as well as extra chairs in the back of the sanctuary. A fitting tribute.
Post: Convert from raw in PSElements 3.0 with a +1.0 exposure compensation. Slight CW rotation and crop and cropped again for aspect ratio. Closed in Elements and opened in PSP9. Clarify. Closed in PSP9 and reopened in Elements. Layer adjustements for levels, brightness and contrast. Layer adjustment for hue/saturation converting to gray scale. Another layer of levels and brightness/contrast. NeatImage. Sharpen. Additional brightening in a layer of curves. Resize. Sharpen.
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A tough subject to photograph. Personally, I find taking pictures at a funeral somewhat ghoulish. However, this shot is tastefully done and does demonstrate the photographer's respect for the person who passed away. The black and white is fitting for this scene and is somewhat symbolic. The mourners in their black symbolizing their grief. The white walls of the church symbolizing the celebration of a person's life.
The composition works well here. As mentioned previously, showing all the people who came to the funeral works well and is important to make this shot work.
Exposure was pretty well handled. There is a couple of bright sports on the right but nothing too distracting. I like the light rays coming down over the coffin.
The challenge: As I mentioned at the beginning this is something I personally would not feel comfortable photographing. That aside it certainly meets the challenge in a unique way and a way that is very personal to the photographer.
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