Memorial Day at Iowa Veterans Cemetery

This past Memorial Day, I was honored to have visited the Iowa Veterans Cemetery in Van Meter. On a clear blue sky day, the red, white and blue flags on every tombstone glowed brightly honoring those who have served this nation.

 As I walked around the cemetery, I carried my D90 to capture the scene that every American should see during Memorial Day weekend.  On this day, I only used the Nikon 18-105mm lense but used different angles by either getting really low or high with my camera. I choose to shoot in AV mode with f7.1 to f11 being my settings with an ISO of 200 or 400. Because of the bright conditions, I bracketed my exposures which allowed more adjustments in post processing.

ViewNX was used to make adjustments of the RAW files on my computer. Because of the bracketed exposures, I adjusted the exposure compensation if needed. The white balance was changed to direct sunlight and picture control was set at nature landscape. Shadows and highlight sliders were adjusted as well if needed.

In PSE8, I stepped up the post processing by combining different black and white images with colored images to showcase the red, white and blue colors of Memorial Day. Layer masks and the paint brush were used to mask out areas that I didn’t want affected by the color changes. The cloning tool was used to clone out unwanted items in the images as well.

My favorite image of this collection was created by combining two different images into one by the use of layer masks and blending modes. I first outlined the eagle and then brought in the background image by changing the blend mode to overlay into the same image as the eagle. I had already used layer masks and a WWII black/white filter to change the background image. Combining the two created a very strong image.

Thank you to all the men and women who have served this nation.

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