I conceived this image as an entry for the Hillcrest Camera Club’s September 2010 set subject “We Rule the Night”. I wanted a spooky graveyard, with dark tones but highlights on the gravestones, and a rising moon. I chose St Andrew’s church in Mooi River, which I had visited about a year before on the way to Giant’s Castle, because it is picturesque and I thought it would be less intimidating at night than any of the large cemetaries in the Durban area.
Although envisaged as a night shot, the photo was actually taken about ten minutes before sunset. This was necessary to balance the light from the moon with the ambient light, since I wanted to retain detail on the moon rather than having it burned out to a uniform white blob; and also to get the last rays of the sun illuminating the tombstones. However it had the unfortunate consequence that the sky was quite light, which detracted from the night ambience I was seeking. I corrected this by setting the colour temperature very low to enhance the blue of the sky, and then using a red filter in the black and white conversion to darken the blue sky. The B&W conversion was done with DXO Film Pack using the Kodak TMax 100 emulation. I added a little grain (by setting the grain size for a medium format camera) to give some texture to the otherwise flat sky.
In order to get the moon in the shot around dawn or dusk, it had to be shot just before or after full moon. Since full moon that month was a day after the camera club meeting I shot it the day before the meeting, which was two days before full moon. One day before full moon would have been better, since then the moon would have been lower in the sky and I could have moved further back and used a longer focal length to get the same framing of the graveyard but with a larger moon.
Composition was complicated by some electricity pylons and cable that run along the hillside just behind the graveyard. I got the camera low and chose the shooting position to hide the pylons behind tombstones.
Nikkor 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 at 24mm, f/13 and 1/60″, ISO 200.
