For as long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to visit Petra Jordan and I can honestly say that seeing The Treasury lit up during Petra by Night was an incredible experience. It’s also one of those events that should be on every photographers bucket list. The combination of light and shadows that play on the surfaces of this ancient archeological site are simply stunning. On this particular night, I we even fortunate enough to have a mostly clear sky, which allowed me to capture some of the stars above.
Technical Mumbo Jumbo
Camera: Nikon D800
Lens: 14-24 f/2.8 (Shot at 14mm)
Tripod: RRS TVC-33 / BH-55 Ballhead / RRS L-Plate
ISO: 400 at f/5.6
3 Manual Exposures + 40 30 second exposures for the stars
Location: Shot in Petra, Jordan and post-processed in Reykjavik, Iceland – May 2013
Hardware: 15” 2013 Macbook Pro Retina, Wacom Intuos5 Small Tablet
Software: Lightroom 4.4, Photoshop CS6, Nik Color Efex Pro 4
Technique and Details: The 3 base exposures were blended manually in Photoshop. The star trails are a blend of 25 30 second exposures. Though the blend came out great, with all the dust and light pollution, it was difficult to capture the more subtle stars. To compensate, I applied some aggressive contrast adjustments in Lightroom before manually stacking the stars in Photoshop.
Espresso: Lavazza Oro (brewed with the delicious cold Icelandic tap water)
