Meet Up at the Cemetery

On November 12^th, I attended the D.C. Cosplay Photo Shoots’ meet-up held at the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC.  This event was respectful to the cemetery and in line with other events they host, such as 5K runs, speaker series, movie nights, tours, and programming.  In essence, the cemetery is going back to how early rural cemeteries were viewed and used as public parks. 

The Congressional Cemetery has been in operation for 207 years, and until the mid-1830s , almost every Congressman who died in D.C. was buried there.  The cemetery became neglected during the 20^th century but was restored after being placed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s list as an endangered site, and a local group of dog owners who walked their dogs there thus began paying for its upkeep, Those initial dog owners became the K9 Corps who now pay an annual fee to walk their dogs off-leash in the cemetery, which makes up about ¼ of the cemeteries’ operating fund.  The cemetery is now a National Historic Landmark and is being fully restored to its former beauty.

For this session I used:

• Canon R6
• 1 Speed light
• Trigger
• 1 Light stands
• 24 - 105mm lens
• Gels
• Assistant

Camera Settings:

For this shoot, I used three ISOs, ISO 100, ISO 400, and ISO 1250, with a majority of the images being taken using ISO 400.  I was comfortable taking the ISO up to 1250 because the sensor in the R6 can handle that without causing grainy images.  Also, it allowed me to use window light inside the small chapel with only a tiny amount of flash fill to make a more natural looking image. My aperture ranged from F4.5 to F16, with most shots at either F7.1 or F8.  There was a significant variation in aperture based on the setting and lighting conditions.  Most of the images I took inside the small chapel were at F4, which I’m more comfortable with now due to the face/eye tracking system within the R6.  The shutter speed ranged from 1/100s to 1/2000s, with the most shots being taken at 1/125s and 1/500s.  My focal length ranged from 24mm to 85mm, with most shots being taken at 24mm and 50mm.

The Photos:

The theme for this shoot was warm golden tones due to the color of the fall leaves, the color of the light in the chapel, and the early setting sun.  The event was held from 1:00PM to 4:00PM, so the later outdoor images started to take on a golden color as the sun began to sink towards the west.

The first image I’m going to talk about is of Gloria, who is one part of In the Long Run Designs.  She is wearing a replica of a dress seen in the 1821 portrait of Mademoiselle Jeanne-Suzanne-Catherine Gonin” by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres.  This image has no color grade and relies solely on the colors coming from the stained-glass window, which was to my right.  Additionally, this image is mostly light with natural light with only a slight hint of fill flash, which you can tell due to the double shadows of the chair.  I placed a ¼ cut CTO gel on the flash to match the light coming from the window so the two lights would blend.  In post I adjusted the white balance slightly, brought up the exposure by a stop, and bumped the clarity slightly.  I also did a slight bit of noise reduction using the luminance slider in Lightroom. I then cropped the image and finished with a heavy vignette.

ISO 1250, Aperture F4, Shutter 1/320s, Focal Length 29.0mm

This next image is of Lokelicious as Santa Muerte from Mexican Folklore.  For this image, I placed the model where the tree tops met, and you could still see orange leaves in the distance to create a frame.  The flash was positioned high in front of the model and angled down towards the model’s face.  I did two different edits of this image, a bright and dark edit; I prefer the dark edit as it is moodier.  To start, I did all the basic edits, then dropped the exposure by ½ stop.  I then pulled the saturation of all the colors in the Color Mixer down to -100 and slowly brought them back up to mute them.  I then added a yellow (highlight) / violet (shadow) color grade, which gives rich warm tones to the image.  I then cropped the image and finished with a strong vignette.

ISO 400, Aperture F4.5, Shutter 1/1250s, Focal Length 58.0mm

This next image is of TanookiCosplay as the Angel of Death, was giving me a bit of trouble because my shutter is faster than my flash recycle.  So, when I checked the image on the back of the camera, it looked like the flash didn’t fire because I was looking at the second image. Once I realized what was happening, I was able to adjust and get everything dialed in.  I appreciate that Tanooki Cosplay was patient throughout the process, as they were the first model of the shoot.  The first model of the day always has to deal with the dial and kink workout process.  For this image, the flash was high and to my right to balance the sun coming from behind the model from the left.  In post, I did the basic edits and crops. Then went back and added a yellow (highlight) / violet (shadow) color grade, which really helped pop the orange/red colors of the leaves and give the image an overall warmer tone.  From there I added a vignette to finish the image.

ISO 100, Aperture F8, Shutter 1/160s, Focal Length 50mm

This final image is of the lovely FireLily Cosplay, as Wednesday Adams from the series Wednesday.  This image is also one of my favorite images from the whole shoot.  To get this image, the flash with a ¼ CTO gel was to my right, pointed through the tree at the model’s face. I then had the model walk towards me to create movement in the cape and dress.  In post, I did the basic edits and then added a small radiant gradient to the model’s face to reduce the shadows.  I cropped the image and then added a strong vignette to the image.  

ISO 400, Aperture F7.1, Shutter 1/500s, Focal Length 37mm

Overall, this was a good meet-up.  At first, I was a little hesitant to shoot in a cemetery, just because of the modern perception of cemeteries, but seeing the dogs run around and people casually strolling helped lessen the modern stigma.  Also, the warm tones in the leaves brought warmth to the space, making it peaceful and inviting.  I think the warm fall colors helped me tone my images towards the warm side versus the expected cool tones, which I think made the images more inviting yet kept the mood.  You can see all the final images here: Congressional Cemetery Meet Up.