Might bump up the contrast a little.

*nod* thank you kyricom. bumped up the contrast. messed with the midtones as well. i'm much happier with this. gives it more of a dramatic feel.

mmm, not sure about this one............imo, it would have been better in daylight, rather than it looking like it was taken in secret after dark.......also, the flash used is a little heavy for my liking.

before the contrast was messed with, you could tell it was taken in daylight. (well, honestly as the sun was setting) the flash use wasn't so noticeable at that point in time (ie, the shadow from the headstone and all)

I love the concept of the photo... but the problem, for me, is that the tombstone is too bright and the subject too dim and kind of washed off... Although it was taken in daylight, it gives me the feeling that the flash did not reach the woman...

Agrees with Ade. The flash really killed it, taking it at night. Grayscale seems to help but yes a day shot would have worked better.

it was done in daylight. >.>

the sun was setting, so it wasn't as harsh of light as what it would have been at say...3pm or so. it was nearing 8pm, so the sun was setting. the original shot shows more light, not enough contrast. I wanted the tombstone to be more stark, so i flashed it to get the effect. but when fixing the contrast, as i stated earlier, i got such a dark and harsh effect. i had so many different angles of this shot but this one seemed to work best at high res and all that.

i really need to figure out better lighting techniques for some of these tricky outdoor shots.

thank you for all your comments and suggestions.

there are some good tutorials about for lighting..........maybe even some in the tutorial archives here!

works well for the theme.......gl