Great Escape Publishing

Posted October 22nd, 2012 by Bonnie Caton & filed under Travel Photography.

You can thank India that your clothes don’t fall off. They invented the button here. Actually, you can thank India for your clothes, too, because they also invented cotton fabric. And those childhood rainy days you spent playing chess or cards? They’re both Indian inventions. All of the candy you ate? India invented sugar. Even your homework came from India, in the form of algebra, trigonometry, and calculus. Bonnie, here, coming to you on Day Two of our India Photo Expedition with professional photographer Efrain Padro. Today we’re photographing the remnants of India’s vast history in the form of crumbling forts, mosques, temples, and various other UNESCO sites strewn across town. The architecture is staggering, elegant, majestic. Unfortunately, the sky is… icky. Since people cook with fire and coal, there’s a lot of haze in the air. But “blah” skies are something you can run into just about anywhere you travel. Sometimes it’s overcast, misty, or smoggy. If you can’t come back for better light in early morning or late afternoon, here are three fun tricks Efrain gave us to get rid of a boring sky: Fun Trick #1: Frame it or fill it. Here’s the entrance to Humayun’s Tomb — a World Heritage site in Delhi. Notice how boring the sky is in this shot. Magazines and photo buyers don’t want photos like this: So I stepped back and framed it with a doorway. Much better! If your skies are nothing but haze or clouds, fill them with leaves, birds, or as Efrain said to us “anything but the sky.” Of course, trees are great: I also tried birds: Trick #2: Go artsy. Again, here’s a photo with way too much hazy sky. Other photographers will go to this site at better times of day and come away with gorgeous skies. I don’t have that luxury this time. So I decided to play with it in processing. I turned the photo black and white and add a sepia tone to make it look like an old photograph. (I also moved the bird using a little Lightroom trick.) The end result might not be something I’d sell to a magazine, but I could likely use it as stock… and I’d definitely print it for my own walls. Fun Trick #3: Get in close. If the sky isn’t looking great, try cropping it out altogether. Take these two photos of the India Gate, for example. Boring: Much better: Delhi has been tons of fun. Tomorrow, I’ll share some attendee shots before we head off on our tiger hunt at Ranthambor Tiger Reserve. Our guide says he’s seen a tiger 28 times out of his 30 visits there, so our odds are looking good! Until tomorrow, Namaste. [Editor’s Note: Learn more about how you can turn your pictures into cash in our free online newsletter The Right Way to Travel. Sign up here today and we’ll send you a new report, Selling Photos for Cash: A Quick-Start Guide, completely FREE.]