(1) Water can help but if the stone is splotchy in color or an old box tomb it will not work in that case. It will also not work well in low light such as the shade of trees.

(2) Get your picture when the sun is shining across the face of the inscription. Since most stones face east early in the morning is better. Be careful to avoid casting your shadow on the stone though. A planned approach is to go in the morning for eastern facing stones and go back at 2 in the afternoon for western facing stones. That is about all of them as 99.9%  of the stones face one of those directions.

(3) Take a tall mirror and hold that so the reflection of the sun shows up across the face of the stone. This takes one person holding & pointing the mirror and one to photograph.  Another form of this is to shine a bright flash light across the face of the stone from an angle to bring out the contrast.

 

Preferred but the stones must be dry for this to work.

(4) Purchase a box or two of sidewalk pastel chalk at your favorite toy/craft store and use it this way. (a) On very dirty stones use a soft brush and brush away the lichen or soil stains.  (a) Next lay the chalk stick on its side and glide the chalk softly over the inscription until at lest the recessed inscription is covered. Less chalk is better usually. (b) Next take a flat kitchen sponge and smooth that across the flat surface using a couple of circular strokes slowly applied. Remember - do not over do it - probably no more than two strokes at max. If you continue you will leave chalk residue inside the inscription thus defeating your purpose. Since chalk residue left in the inscription works against you blow it out or brush it out with a small broom. If you did it right it should look like this: (this was a gray-blue color chalk). For an air blast use a can of Computer Cleaner to achieve the blast of air needed to clear the internal inscription of chalk.

IN Memory of Peter Greenberry Williams, Infant son of Samuel N. & Sarah P. Williams. was born 10th of June 1838 & departed this life 5th of oct 1839, aged 15 months & 25 days

Bynum-Williams Cemetery-Maury Co Tn using gray-blue pastel chalk.

 

Never rub a stick of chalk over lettering that protrudes above the stone. That could break off the lettering. In this case rub the chalk into the sponge and then rub that lightly over the lettering.
Use the lighter colors and pastel chalks and throw away the dark brilliant colors as they show up strange looking in the photos. White is the better color but only a few white sticks are included in the mix of a box so use the white sticks first, then pastels (whitish blues, grays, browns etc) and then go for another box at $1.97 per box. One box should cover about 50 stones depending on the style stones. Remember the need for chalking is brought on by the need to read old stones. Modern Granite markers need nothing but a good photographer.

 

A better sponge can be made by modifying an old sanding sponge. Take one that is a cheaply made Chinese version that is well used and grind off or tear off the sanding grit and underlying black coating. NEVER USE A NEW/RAW SANDING GRIT SPONGE ON A STONE, you will destroy its patination (time honored coloration) and do permanent harm!  Below the black coating is left a very flat, soft & smooth fine foam surface that provides a great medium to smooth in the chalk on the inscription. If you are having a hard time grinding off the grit layer lay the sponge on rough concrete and rub it in a circular motion fiercely and that should peel it off. Use the cheap sanding blocks from China at $.30 cents each. For those the grit & coating peels off easily on rough concrete such as your driveway or the side of your brick home. Commercial grade Sanding sponges - American Made will not lose their grit and coating easily enough to be used and they are about $3.00 apiece too, so use the kitchen sponge if that is your choices.

 

Remember if you get the grit off, but leave the smooth black undercoating on the sponge it will work, but just not as well. It tends not to smooth in the chalk as much, but with the grit gone it will not harm the stone. Also the chalking procedure will not work on wet stones. The stone must be dry or the sponge absorbs the chalk. Another point is we are chalking the stone to make them readable and nothing else as this does not improve the appearance of the stone in the photo so do not use chalk if you don't have to.

 

This is a great outcome on an old box tombs that are hard to read:

Nelson Cem in Giles Co. using pastel yellow-green chalk to highlight the inscription. Notice in this case I applied the chalk only to the inscription and not over the entire area of the inscription. That was just to save time. Really it looks better to cover the area evenly and have an even look. Our aim is to bring out the inscription and not create beauty. It does not do that so only chalk where you have to. Done correctly the look should be almost natural and not loud or bold. I repeat do not use the bright phosphoric colors such as bright reds or bright orange etc. These are not historic looking and will show up in photos as dull looking, and to me is just ugly. The chalk easily washes off with the first rain and leaves no residue. The only precautionary note is this chalking method is not a procedure that should be applied regularly on a stone, just as any cleaning process. Over many times it could wear the stone to some degree more than natural wear. I will say a stone should not be chalked more then once ever ten years.

 

You can use the shaving cream method, but I have never used that. It is expensive & time consuming and requires a soft plastic smoothing trial to force the cream into the inscription. The left over residue if not washed away can harm the stone too. It sets up a acid based chemical residue that can do harm and fertilize growing things to form on the stone surface rendering the stone worse for reading over time.

I hesitated for many years in presenting the above procedure. There are so many folks out there who are callous and insist on altering any presentation given to them or they don't bother to understand or follow instructions properly. This could do a lot of harm to the old soft stones. Examples of that is using a magic marker inside an inscription to make it black.

Samuel Crockett 1772 -1827 in the Andrew Crockett Cemetery. This is a distorted inscription by a black magic marker or paint inside the inscription. Cannot read the birth year at all, looks like 1732. Maybe they even took a router and clumsily re-cut the lettering again in a very rough way. Who knows. This is so ugly and never looks right again on a very historic stone.

 Remember some of these old stones are softer than a bar of soap. You will find that out by breaking one of them if you are not careful. Remember be a jeweler and work with softly applied precision and never be rough and forceful in dealing with tombstones. If you have a handshake like a Philadelphia Lawyer chances are you are too strong to use any of thes methods. This procedure is a delicate art & difficult when dealing with an 100-800 pound stone. I am convinced there are folks among us who are incapable of that by their nature. But what ever you do follow this additional advise:

Do not use wire brushes on stones except to clean the (breakage) joints prior to epoxy gluing them back together.
Do not use sanding mediums (blocks, paper, etc.) on stones.
A good test to tell if a brush is soft enough is to rub the bristles across the back of your hand. If it hurts don't use it on the stone.
Never use anything with acids or alkali on a stone. For instance never use Muriatic Acid or Lye or Clorox
Clorox and other bleaches leave a residue that will breakdown into harmful substances unless flushed away thoroughly with water immediately after use.
Also never touch the inside of an inscription. All the above procedures touch only the surface of the stone. If you see a big flake of lichen covering the inscription just whisk it way with your finger or the soft brush.
Caution: Do not find yourself downwind of the chalking process. There is a dusty residue stirred up in the process of gliding the chalk over the stone. You can get C.O.P.D. in the long run if you breath chalk dust enough.

 C. Wayne Austin , 14 Apr 2011. Revised Jul 2015