[DaleHCook]

In the 17th and 18th centuries headstones generally faced east, so that the dead could arise facing the dawn on Judgement Day. Archival photographs of the east-facing stones were taken with the sunlight raking the face of the stone at an angle between 20 and 30 degrees to show the best contrast between light and shadow in the inscription and the decoration. Monochrome photography displays that contrast much better than color photography. The solution I am working on uses a powerful electronic flash when the sun is not on the face of a stone, raking the face at an appropriate angle. The difficulty is in compensating for the inverse square law in the lighting.

It is best to also provide contrast between a stone and the (largely chlorophyll) background to make the stone stand out from the background. For a light-colored stone such as white marble a red filter will darken the background in monochrome. For a dark-colored stone such as slate a green filter will lighten the background in monochrome.