It's Often in the Details

I had the chance to join Don Harper  to shoot a memorial service at Arlington National Cemetery on Thursday and was reminded once again that much of the emotion of an event is in the details. This is particularly good when shooting this last week. First, we were shooting between two snow storms with brutal bright light that had a contrast range that was very difficult to manage. Often when faced with glaring light, one solution is to look for those areas of a scene where the contrast range is less or can be used to your advantage. Another option is to convert the final image to black and white. [Think Nik's Silver Efex Pro].The second reason is that when shooting a funeral at Arlington one has to respect the wishes of the family about what can be shown. As photographers shooting at Arlington, there is never a lack of powerful details. Here are some examples of these techniques.