What I Did on My Vacation #13

Well, we have finally arrived at what I really wanted to photograph—Machu Picchu.  Before I go into how and why I took the photograph that I took, I would like to provide you with a little background.  Photographing Machu Picchu is hard.  Why?  Basically, three reason:  (1) it has been photographed so many times and as a result, the bar is quite high for any photograph to be judged as good; (2) the orientation of the sun from left to right which cast hard shadows on many parts of the ruins and the harsh light because of the altitude makes taking a pleasing photograph very difficult; and, (3) the limited access (open at 7:00 AM and closing at 5:00 PM) makes for rather large crowds and poor lighting.

Before I discuss today’s photo, I want to say that I got lucky.  We stayed at the hotel at the top of the mountain and as a result I did not have to worry about catching the last bus (at 5:00 PM) down the mountain.  I got to stay to the very last minute of the park’s opening.  Second, clouds moved-in late in the afternoon and softened the light and provided some great rays-of-light that added to the photo.

I tried two compositions of Machu Picchu: one showing almost all of the ruins and the one presented here which shows only a small portion of the ruins.  I shoot seven shots (+3 EV to -3EV) with the camera on a tripod, so that I could use HDR, if I wanted.  In the image presented I used four of the shots (-3 EV to 0 EV) and combined them using nik HDR Pro (which is becoming my favorite program for HDR).  Because I wanted to soften the HDR effect, I then used nik Color Efex Pro’s glamour glow filter.  I think the result is details with a soft feel.  Finally, I dodged and burn various elements within the photo.

Enjoy