giuseppe-sapori-afaia
During my stay in Aegina I went to the famous Temple of Aphaia, is the main attraction of this Greek island and I must admit that it is a wonderful spot. The Temple of Aphaia is located on a top a promontory overlooking the cliffs of Agia Marina, get there at sunset was not easy because of the Greek island public transport had a fairly limited hours and I found myself without a car. So I decided to climb by bus and then get off to Agia Marina on foot through a small mountain path. Whereas at that time there were no more public transport who got in around the archaeological site was almost desert. So I had this spot all to myself till the complete closing time of the place 🙂 As I said I did a lot of photos and this is the frontal view of the Temple of Aphaia. I made a bracketed series of about 5 shots but I’ve used less than half in my final image the more overexposed one used  to lighten the foreground that was so dark

WORKFLOW EXPLANATION

Starting from the correct exposure I focused to clear shadows of contrasts of the strong sun. I used Luminance Masks to blend the two layers. Always with the help of overexposed shot I cleared the sun’s rays to make a greater impact. I used the Lab Color with 60% opacity and then stepped up yellow using Hue/Saturation. Then I take a small Dodge and Burn on the rocks and on the temple itself and then I increased the details throughout the frame. Finally I slightly increased the contrast to give more prominence to the sky and added a small vignetting with Darken Lighten Center in Color Efex Pro at 35%

TECHNICAL STUFF 

Camera: Nikon D-800
Lens: Nikon 14-24mm f/2,8 (Shot at 14mm)
Five Exposures (-2; -1; 0; +1; +2)
ISO: 100 at f/9
Software: Photoshop CC2015.5
Plugin: Color Efex Pro