Grave Marker for Civil War Veteran (Grand Army of the Republic)

thingiverse

At the oldest cemetery in Sioux Falls, SD, numerous Civil War veterans rest in peace. Many of them proudly display a military grave marker with an accompanying metal flag holder indicating their membership in the G.A.R. or Grand Army of the Republic. This particular stone belongs to H.W. Lewis of Company C of the 22nd Infantry of the Wisconsin Infantry. I created this model by merging 38 photos taken using a Sony A5100 in RAW mode, paired with a Nikon Series E 35mm 1:2.5 lens attached via an adapter. Here's how I designed this project: I randomly selected this stone and utilized a tripod to take multiple overlapping photos using my Sony A5100 in RAW mode, coupled with a Nikon Series E 35mm 1:2.5 lens on an adapter. In total, I captured 38 photos around the stone and several close-up shots of the front of the G.A.R. star. However, I inadvertently neglected to obtain sufficient coverage for the top portion of the grave stone. At home, I converted all the Sony ARW raw files into DNG files, imported them into Photomatix Pro, and chose a conservative HDR output in TIF format. After double-checking the files to ensure even tones and exposures, I opened the folder in Photoscan and utilized the 'Medium' setting from start to finish. It took roughly an hour to transform the 38 photos into a precise model of H.W. Lewis' grave stone. The final step was to open the model in Meshmixer, where I repaired the hole at the top of the grave stone and made some minor edits before exporting it as a OBJ & PLY file for sharing here.