Many tombstones are hard to read due to age and weathering
Take chalk to help outline the hard to read letters
Take care to assure you transcribe everything on a tombstone exactly as possible
Be sure to describe anything unusual on a tombstone
If possible, try to wait until the sun is at the best angle for reading and photographing a tombstone
Take the picture at a 20 to 30 degree angle to make use of shadows on the letters
If you can read the tombstone in a digital camera's screen then no need to handwrite the info too
Many libraries have papers done by some wonderful soul who spent the time transcribing all tombstones for one or more cemeteries, then placed a copy of the labor of love in the local library
Cleaning Tombstones>
Sometimes tombstones are hard to read because of things growing on them and stained them.
Here is a mixture of chlorine bleach and powdered cleanser:
3 cups of liquid bleach (e.g. Purex)
3 tablespoons of a powdered cleanser (e.g. Comet)
Caution: do not use a cleanser containing amonia with chlorine
Pour the mix into a pin and apply with a fiber brush keeping the stone wet for at least ten minutes, brushing occasionally
If there is loose scale on the tombstone, scrape it with a windshield scraper before wetting the tombstone