Afternoon Photography
Golden Light vs Morning Photography in Cusco city: A Comprehensive Guide
Perhaps several times we have heard about the word “Golden Light” and people tend to give this natural efect of light so much importance to their photography, but you might ask yourself ¿WHY DO NOT WE SELECT THE VERY MORNING INSTEAD?. In the following article you will see differences between golden light or morning shoots with real photographs taken in dowtown of Cusco for you make your own conclusions and decide which photography is best for you.
The Science Behind Morning and Afternoon Light
Differences in light quality
The following photographs displays how is light in the very morning in Cusco during the winter season. Since there are some hills and mountains surrounding Cusco is obvius the delay of the Sun rises but it also happens because in winter the day is shorter in comparison to nights, although there is not a big difference because the country of Perú is close to the Equator.
Color temperature and shadows
As the photographer beginner knows, the late afternoon before the Sunset the light tend to be orange-yellow colours, that is also called the famous “golden light” which tends to give a photograph a warm temperature and sense of warm feelings, eventhough the latter argument depends on the whole landscape context. For instance the golden light at the beach looks quite romantic, on the other hand pictures taken in other scenery such as places surrounded by mountains without vegetation perhaps can add your photo a sense of sadness.
Benefits of Morning Photography
Soft, golden light
The colours that you will see in the very morning-as you can see in the photographs taken in Cusco downtown- tend to be different with the prominence of “cold colours” that we might call “a soft golden light” although the latter does nothing to do with the real “Golden light” taken in the late afternoon. However the advantages of taken photographs in the very morning is the intense beautiful blue sky and the prominence and presence of white colours with a lot of bright.Less crowded locations
Among other bennefits that you can notice when taking photographs in the very morning is the sense of isolation because in places like those ones in the photographs, you will not see people. Although this rule does not apply to sites like Machupicchu-because most of the travelers specially those one hiking the Inca trail that lead to Machupicchu will try to see the Sunrises at Machupicchu-. In fact few people get Machupicchu in the late afternoon by the Sunset time (around 17:30 pm) when the park is closed for the public.
Make of your photographs a real experiment
So everything will depend on the feelings and emotions awaken in your soul and heart by the photographs you captured with your camera. I suggest to try many pictures as much as you can in both schedules. Nevertheless if you are inclined for taking photos in the late afternoon perhaps organizing your trip on your own, with a travel agent or tour operator will be a great idea to have this preference in advance.
Benefits of Afternoon Photography
Orange colors
For sure the nuances, tonalties and the magic of the landscape can be captured when you play with the late afternoon colours. The orange colours is the most outstanding features during the magic moment. The example to the right perhaps is not too clear because the brick organic colour of these churches might confuse the vision of the reader, but you can see the time and how the Sun in the afternoon is shining the facade of a Jesuits church. On the other hand you can take a look at the morming photograph with dramatic shadows which for sure generates in the photograph a constrast and a different story.
Do not forget that inmediately after the “Golden light moment” the tonalities will change dramatically into pinkish and purple colours, specially when you focuse your lenses over the sky and clouds if this is the case, so you can take advantage of this event as well.
Exposure time in your photographs
Taking pictures with a faster exposure time such as 1/60 seconds in the late afternoon might give your photographs a sense of drama specially if you are taking the sky and the clouds will turn out to be more cloudy. If you combine this parameter with buildings on the background, so you might capture orange landscapes backgrounds with dramatic sky. In Cusco city or Machupicchu the iconic landscape will be for sure old buildings with orange tonalities dyed by the sky and background tonalities.
Examples and tips
¡Take a look the photograps of birds near the city in Cusco!, they had been captured in the very morning and now ¡look the landscapes taken in the late afternoon!. That's a good example of the presence of orange colurs taken in the late afternoon, for those case also you should take the exposure time and the dramatic formation of clouds that you can notice. You might see also the pictures taken in Machupicchu in the late afternoon with those features and the exposure.
Comparing Morning and Afternoon Photography
Pros and cons of each
In general morning photography is more bright and give yours skies a more intense blue color instead of a light blue colour or orange colour skies in the late afternoon. The pros and cons will depend on the purpose that you are looking for.
Astronomical alignments such as solstices or equinoxes are better in the very morning because it combines the clear prominency of white colours with the intense blue sky-if there are not clouds in the season that you are visiting Cusco-with your background photography specially if you are oriented against the Sun light direction.
You might also take advantage of the very morning pictures for birding, that's to say birds also awake in the early morning and they will let you know that they appeared by listnennig to their singing as well as their physical presence while in the late afternoon its presence is scarce. However the very morming has its cons. First of all you will have to avoid the parties or meetings passed midnight because it seems you will want to sleep more and in doing so your bed sheets might stick to you in the very morning.
On the other hand the late afternoon will provide to your photography more poetic, perhaps epic and drama features to your composition. I guess the late afternoon can offer you pictures that you can capture as you would be a real painter of a canvass giving you a lot of inspiration for the near evening. Late afternoon might facilitate your emotions and feelings to be awaken and portrayed them over your photography. This time might be the threshold and introduction for other type of photography such as Astro*Photography or be the introduction to other type of tours such as esotheric or Astro-tourism.
Best scenarios for each time of day
The best scenarios for taking photographs in Cusco are the iconic pictures that you can see by means of social media on internet. However there is always a new unique scenery waiting for you to discover and that can be capture in the very morning or either in the late afernoon.
I guess photographs captured in the very morning might be considered “serious pictures” if you are taking photographs in places like the main square of Cusco (Plaza de armas) because it provides elements that add a lot of realism to your art. So keeping in mind this approach you might want to consider the “blue sky” or “some clouds” appearing in the background of your images.
You should consider other ingridients that you can see in Cusco downtown, I mean the architecture such as old renassence churches (from back the XVI century) which will give you realism to your composition. The same idea might be applied to general downtown since the elements provided are quite similar like the stonework, blue, green balconies, old wood doorways and lintels carved in relief showing Jesuits, pre-columbian iconography as well as colonial shields and other symbols. I would say that realistic pictures taken in the morning might are perfect photographs for history buffs while the late afternoon, the evening and night photography for those ones who love poetry, surrealism, who are natural dreamers and fiction hunters.
Tips for Both Morning and Afternoon Photography
Equipment recommendations
I guess most travelers would preffer to carry small lugage or just carry ons, so make sure which type of photography you are planning to take as your main goal for your trip. Since preferences might vary from traveler to traveler, you should keep it mind the following recommendations:
If you are wishing to take photographs with more pixels rather than your basic cellphone, you might prefer to bring with you a SRL or DSLR digital camera. For portrait photography you might use lenses (within 18-55 mm) which will allow you to take pictures with lanscapes giving prominency to faces adjusting the lenses at 55 mm (120 cm distance from the photographer to the face).
Camera settings for portrait photography:
You might use lenses (objective within 18-55 mm) which will allow you to take pictures with lanscapes giving prominency to faces. Adjusting the lenses at 55 mm (120 cm distance from the photographer to the face) you will have a face occupying the whole frame.
You might want to use lenses with objectives within 75-300 mm as telephoto for longer distances for instance at 5 meters of distance you might capture the whole face adjusting your lenses at 300 mm. Keep in mind using this setting and distance the prominency will be given to the face and the background will tend to be unfocused.
*Notice that the objective about 300 mm or higher will give you advantage if you love birding since you might approach your lenses to the birds without disturbing or scaring them.
Camera settings for lanscapes:
You might want to use an objectives to capture the whole scenery of landscapes encompasing for instance mountains, rivers, people or faces as much as you can with objectives (eye fish) within 10-18 mm; however you should be wise using this lense because having people there in the panoramic frame eveything tend to look bigger specially if the object are close to the camera, for instance you will notice that feets and faces will turn wider and bigger distorting the faces and shoes. So perhaps this option you might use it better for Astrophotography, it means to capture most the stars, constelations and milky way as much as you can.
*Exposure time: This setting is part of the famous exposure triangule which is the basic knowledge when someone is learning photography. So in order to use the exposure time you might use this rule: If a focal distance of 50 mm has been chosen, then the exposure time should be at least 1/50 s. When using a focal distance of 200 m, then the exposure time should be at least set to 1/200 s.
Conclusion:
When it comes to arts in general, we know that there are certain rules and canons that can be forgotten in order to give importance to other unexpected circunstances and ingridients.
Photography is an interesting art and subjective to the likes and preferences of everyone. As I mentioned earlier the pictures taken by photographers will depend on the emotions that are awaken in every person. Many times the artistic world has been surprised by artworks that were not considered to be valuable until someone with another perspective gave so much importance to such an work.
I guess a preference also has to do the lifestyle of the photographer and it will determine the type of photography that he/she is looking for. Someone who loves to read novels and fictionary stories for sure will be looking for achieving more epic photography and perhaps that person will be using extra tools to edit the photographs such as photoshop and light room, while someone who is a sort of story teller, or perhaps who is working for a newspaper or a magazine will tend to capture more realistic pictures.
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