Peru Photography Tips
Photo Tours and Expeditions/Daniel Korzeniewski
If you’ve never been to Peru, it’s a place that many call “mystical.” It’s a true photographer’s paradise with a wide range of landscapes, an intensely beautiful culture, and a rich history that dates back thousands of years.
From the bustling streets of the modern city of Lima to the quiet mountaintop location of Machu Picchu, there is a seemingly endless variety of scenery to capture with your camera.
In this Peru photography guide, I’ll go over a few essential tips for making the most of your time in this enchanting country.
Take a Variety of Lenses
Photo Tours and Expeditions/George Plucienkowski
While I’m all for traveling lean and mean, when you head to Peru for a photography adventure, you need to pack more than one lens.
At a bare minimum, I’d suggest taking a wide-angle and a telephoto lens.
The wide-angle lens is ideal for capturing wide vistas and taking in massive scenes like Machu Picchu. The drama you can create with a nicely layered shot - foreground interest, the subject in the middle, and an interesting background to complete the shot - is something a wide-angle lens is purpose-built to help you do.
Photo Tours and Expeditions/Daniel Korzeniewski
Having a telephoto lens is a must for creating much more intimate images.
Use your telephoto as you roam the streets of Lima, taking candid photos of people on the street. You can also use it to compress landscape scenes and exaggerate the enormity of the peaks of the Peruvian Andes.
If you have room in your bag, throw in your Nifty Fifty, too. If you ask me, there’s no better all-purpose, walkaround lens!
Basic Camera Settings
Photo Tours and Expeditions/George Plucienkowski
When you’re exploring the city streets, open the aperture to f/1.8-f/2.8. This allows you to blur the background so you can separate your subject in the frame. Likewise, with all that light entering the lens, you can bump up the shutter speed to freeze movement (and help keep camera shake at bay as well).
Photo Tours and Expeditions/Daniel Korzeniewski
But when you’re in the mountains, close down the aperture to maximize the depth of field. You don’t need to shoot at f/22, either - far from it. If you aim for f/8, you’ll find that you get the depth of field you need to keep everything from the foreground to the background nice and sharp.
Regardless of where and what you’re shooting, keep the ISO as low as possible. A setting of 100 or 200 will do the trick to minimize digital noise.
Machu Picchu is a Must
Photo Tours and Expeditions/Daniel Korzeniewski
Obviously, if you’re going on a Peru photography trip, you have to make time to explore Machu Picchu.
This place is one of the Seven Wonders of the World for a reason - it is absolutely spectacular. And when you consider the story behind it - it was unknown to the outside world until 1911 - you begin to realize the true magnificence of this five-mile-long mountaintop citadel.
Photo Tours and Expeditions/Daniel Korzeniewski
Machu Picchu is impressive not just because of its size but also because of its location. High in the rocky countryside northwest of Cuzco, it is unimaginable how the fortress was built by hand.
While you’re there, get wide shots of the citadel, but also go in for detailed images, say, of the many stone steps that link the different levels of the ancient city. The ruins of the stone buildings are a worthy subject as well.
You’ll want to be there for sunset, too. The fading light illuminating the city and the surrounding mountains is definitely something to behold.
It’s Not Just About the Landscapes
Photo Tours and Expeditions/Daniel Korzeniewski
Peru’s landscapes are stunning, no doubt. But there is much more to photograph in Peru than its mighty mountains.
Take some time to explore the city of Cusco, the ancient capital of the Inca Empire and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Photo Tours and Expeditions/George Plucienkowski
This vibrant city is an excellent location to hone your street photography and architecture photography skills. There are busy plazas full of people, gorgeous archaeological remains, and Spanish colonial architecture that oozes with bright colors.
Be sure to drop by the Plaza de Armas - Cusco’s central square - where you will find the locals wandering through Incan ruins, old arcades, and breathtaking wood-carved balconies.
Planning Your Peru Photography Trip
Photo Tours and Expeditions/Daniel Korzeniewski
I’m a big fan of making traveling as easy as possible...
That’s why I like to visit new locations with a photography tour as often as I can. I’ve been on tours in many parts of the U.S. and abroad, and not having to worry about things like in-country transportation, food, or my itinerary is quite freeing!
What’s more, going on a photography tour means that you can rely on experts who know the area like the back of their hand to get you to the must-see places (and the off-the-beaten-path areas) for the best shots.
Photo Tours and Expeditions/Daniel Korzeniewski
If you’re thinking about visiting Peru, the photography tour company I recommend is Photo Tours and Expeditions.
They’ve got a 14-day Peru photo tour coming up in the summer of 2021 that takes you from Lima to Arequipa, Cusco to the Sacred Valley and points in between.
You’ll have an opportunity to photograph people, places, cities, and landscapes, and hone your photography skills in a small group setting (no more than 12 participants).
Photo Tours and Expeditions/Daniel Korzeniewski
This is an all-inclusive trip, so you don’t need to worry about where you’ll stay, how you’ll get from Point A to Point B, what you’ll eat, or tickets to attractions like Machu Picchu.
Instead, you can relax in the air conditioned ground transportation as you’re whisked from one location to another, learning more about Peru’s rich history from a local English-speaking guide, and getting feedback on your images from the tour leaders and your tour mates.
Photo Tours and Expeditions/George Plucienkowski
For my money, there is simply no better way to explore this mysterious place than as part of a photography tour.
If you’re ready to take the plunge and take a true South American adventure, visit Photo Tours and Expeditions for details about this once-in-a-lifetime Peru photo tour.