Try using D-Stretch.

 
 
 
Mark Howe 

"Life is how you make it, the future is how you leave your past." 




> Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2011 08:39:59 -0400
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Sandstone headstone question
> To: [log in to unmask]
> 
> In addition, Photos using the non-visible spectrum may work, Mike. This has been done for mural paintings and art conservation. Contact your local utility company and ask if anyone does Thermography as part of energy audits. That will give you emitted IR (heat). You could also try UV and reflected IR. Maybe USU has a remote sensing group?
> Cheers,
> Tim
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
> On Jul 20, 2011, at 7:36 AM, Michael Bathrick <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> > Sometimes this method along with a digital photo and Photoshop can tease a hitherto unreadable inscription out.  Fiddle with contrast, brightness and any filters you can get your hands on.  Photoshop might even be able to tweak out painted inscriptions.
> > 
> > Mike
> > 
> > On 7/20/2011 7:18 AM, McKee, Larry (Nashville,TN-US) wrote:
> >> Mike,
> >> The raking light method should work, basically tilt it back and forth under a light source pointing more or less horizontal. Kind of like trying to tease out the date on a worn coin.
> >> If the naked eye can't see any linear incisions of any kind on either face of the stone, it probably never had any lettering. In Tennessee, I'd estimate 40 to 95 percent of the graves in 19th and early 20th century rural family and church cemeteries are marked with unaltered slabs set upright at the head and/or foot of the grave. Percentage definitely trends down with time.
> >> Good luck with it,
> >> Larry
> >> ________________________________________
> >> From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of [log in to unmask] [[log in to unmask]]
> >> Sent: Tuesday, July 19, 2011 11:55 PM
> >> To: [log in to unmask]
> >> Subject: Sandstone headstone question
> >> 
> >> Hello Histarchers.  I have a question concerning a project we are currently undertaking in Utah.  In order to accommodate construction of a building, we are exhuming and moving a grave which is outside of a cemetery.  It has what appears to be a headstone, though there are no discernable markings on it.  It is rough cut native sandstone and seems, with little doubt to be a headstone.  It is roughly shaped, and even sawn off at one end and lies near one end of the grave. There are no other stones of such size in the area.  The grave probably dates to about 1900, based on the fact that there are two infant graves in the vicinity dating to the early 20th Century.
> >> 
> >> We are very interested in trying to decipher an inscription on it, if such is there. We don't even know if there really is an inscription on it or if something was painted on the stone.  It may have never been altered, but just placed there to mark the grave.  But, we would like to be sure.  Can anyone suggest methods that might bring out markings if they were worn down or if remnants of paint remain or if some other means might have been used to mark the stone?  The stone was laying down, so its not even certain which side might have been used.  Both sides are somewhat rough, though one side is less so.
> >> 
> >> Any suggestions would be most appreciated.
> >> 
> >> Mike
> >> 
> >> 
> >> Michael R. Polk, M.A., RPA
> >> Principal Archaeologist
> >> Sagebrush Consultants, L.L.C.
> >> Ogden, Utah
> >> =