The biggest attraction in Peru is Machu Picchu, the Inca fortress built on a plateau a thousand feet above the Urubamba River and never found by the Spanish conquistadors. The classic shot that everyone wants is the overview of the ruins from an elevated height. This shot has been captured so often by so many people, and I wanted to do something different. There are always a few llamas hanging around the site, and I photographed them from various perspectives. To make this composite, I used Topaz Remask 5 because it's the only software that does a great job at separating difficult subjects with hair from their original backgrounds. The white hair of the llama offered excellent contrast, thus the mask turned out to be perfect. What's interesting about this combination of images is that I shot the ruins with a lens equivalent to a 24mm wide angle, yet for the llama I used a medium telephoto. Usually, combining focal lengths in a composite isn't a good idea, but it worked here.
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