Allinda Photography has been creating high dynamic range (HDR) images since 2008.  This is one example.   Many HDR photos have an other-worldly or surreal look, and some people like that look.  But we only use HDR when the range of tones in a scene is greater than our digital sensor can capture in one exposure.  We try to avoid that other-worldly effect.  So our HDR photos tend to look more natural.  How do we do that?  It’s really very simple – more so than when we first started creating HDR images.

Our current workflow: We normally use a tripod, although we sometimes handhold the camera under good light and with a very steady hand or bracing against a solid object. The camera is set to bracket 5 exposures, which we normally set as one stop apart, with the fastest continuous shot sequence possible, and that results in exposures of -2, -1, 0, +1, and +2 EV.  Sometimes we lock the mirror up if the light level is very low.  We want the highest quality and range of tones; therefore, we shoot raw files, never jpegs.

Creation of Tiff files: Initially we look at the raw files in Adobe Bridge and decide which contain the tones we want in our final image. We use Adobe Photoshop CS5, opening just the files we have selected in Camera Raw. We apply highlight recovery for each shot as needed, apply noise reduction if needed, and for all the shots adjust the black level to “0″, set the curves section to linear, enable lens profile correction, and choose a camera profile.  Then we save the files as tiffs.  This can all be done using Lightroom as well. We prefer Bridge and Camera Raw. That suits our style better.

Alignment: This may sound like an unnecessary degree of technical detail, but it is what  makes the difference between our earlier HDR images and our current ones. The Tiff files are opened in Photoshop CS5 and stacked as layers in one file using the “Load Files into Stack” script in Photoshop. The “StackAlignCrop” script is then run on the layered file.  (This script can be downloaded from the following URL: http://www.outbackphoto.com/CONTENT_2007_01/section_hdr_and_tonemapping_2009/20100917_HDR_OptimizedAlignment/index.html)   Follow the instructions given there to install the script in Photoshop and setup the HDR parameters.  The script aligns the layers. Next the layers are converted back into files using the “Export Layers to Files” script built into Photoshop.   These files are now aligned more accurately than possible using any of the various HDR software products currently available, according to the authors of the Outbackphoto.com article referenced above.

Creating the HDR and Tone-Mapping:  The aligned Tiff files can now be imported into almost any HDR software.  My choice of HDR software is Photomatix 4.  I have tried a few others, but in my opinion none has more capability for creating natural-looking HDR photos than Photomatix.  The corresponding Nik product, HDR Efex Pro, is capable of similar results by choosing a preset and then customizing it. It’s a matter of choice which one you decide on.  The only other HDR software I have tried is HDR Pro in Photoshop CS5, which in my hands seems to provide fewer ways to adjust the effects.  I’m sure there are more possibilities than I know about.  The Tiff files are imported into Photomatix 4, which comes up with a dialog requiring you to label relative exposures of the files.  The files are already aligned, so disable the align feature.   The 32 bit HDR file is then created.   It must be tone-mapped.   That is where the natural look is created, by carefully adjusting the many sliders.  Try to keep the colors from getting over-saturated.  Avoid anything that creates halos, e.g., between the blue sky and the trees or buildings.  Clouds should look like real clouds, not like Halloween, but with nice contrast. I t is only possible to say what was done to achieve specific effects with specific images.  There is no general  advice I can give.   You just have to do it yourself.  Once you find a combination that works for you, save it as a preset.   That will get you in the ballpark, but it may be necessary to make major changes with a different image.

Examples of Actual HDR Images We Have Created:

Left:   Tiff file from the “0″ EV exposure for “Richmond From the Mayo Bridge.   The buildings and sky look pretty good, but the sand bar is rather dark, and there are power lines and poles that take something away from the scene.   There is some perspective distortion.   Right: The tone-mapped Tiff file derived from the -1, 0, and +1 EV exposures.

Below are the settings used in Photomatix 4 to achieve a natural-looking image.

• Strength:  60
• Color Saturation: 52
• Luminosity: 0
• Micro-contrast: 10
• Smoothing: 7.7
• White Point: 0.909%
• Black Point: 0.111%
• Gamma: 1.10
• Temperature: 0 (same as original images)
• Saturation Highlights:            2.8
• Saturation Shadows: 4.5
• Micro-smoothing: 7.5
• Highlight Smoothing:            2.6
• Shadows Smoothing: 0
• Shadows Clipping: 0

The final image after post-processing is shown here.  The steps taken included correcting perspective distortion using the lens correction filter in Photoshop; removing the halo effect in the sky using  color-range selection on a separate layer, then blending; and the tedious job of removing poles and wires using a combination of quick-mask selections and the spot-patch tool with Content-Aware.

Post-Processing:  This is probably the most important part of the creation of a good, natural-looking HDR image, or practically any image.  There are things that need to be done on specific files, such as selecting the trees or buildings and increasing the contrast or saturation, or adjusting the hue of specific colors.  Sometimes it is necessary to remove wires or poles to achieve the look you want to create.  You are the artist, and you have to do whatever it takes to achieve your view of this image. Some of the latest innovations in Photoshop lend themselves to this realization, such as Content-Aware.  This is very useful when creating panoramic composites. Frequently there are blank areas that need to be filled with content from the rest of the image.  Sometimes this results in multiple copies of the same features.  Use of the Patch-Healing Brush with Content-Aware activated can fix this problem.

It is frequently necessary to make a selection of a portion of the image to enhance it.  One example I run into frequently is a line of trees with a blue sky behind it.  To really fix that it is necessary to separate the fine details of the trees from the sky.  Left: the initial tone-mapped file of James River North Shore HDR before post-processing.  A series of selections was made to enhance this image.  James River North Shore Selection (Right) is a combination of two of these selections – of the shoreline trees and houses.

The final image after post-processing is shown here.   Additional selections were used to increase the color intensity of the leaves on the rocks on the near shoreline, as well as enhance the rapids.

There are numerous other examples, which you can imagine by looking over the “Richmond HDR Images”, “Badlands and Black Hills”, “Tetons and Surroundings” and “Yellowstone and Vicinity” galleries in the Bay Photo Store at Allindaphoto.com.

Probably the most intensive example is Hollywood Cemetery in Fall Colors, a panoramic HDR image created by combining three HDR images.  Because the individual sets were not taken with the intention of making a panoramic HDR, the position of the tree line was somewhat different in each HDR image.  The first two images are shown above.  The three images could not be stitched normally due to a program error due to the lack of adequate overlapping of the images.  However, it was possible to stitch the first two images to produce Hollywood Composite1 (Left below).

On the right (above) is the third HDR image that I stitched with Hollywood Composite1  (Left above) to create Hollywood Composite2, shown below.

Again there were missing sections that had to be filled in as before because of a mismatch in the two images and lack of sufficient overlap.  Despite that, there was enough information to join the two images to produce the panorama.  Cropping would have removed too much of the rocks at the bottom.  Normally at least 1/4 overlap between two adjacent images is needed to create the panorama in Photomerge.

This may seem like a lot of trouble, but that’s what fine art photography is all about – the visualization of an image and then the creation of that image by whatever means are necessary.  And the tools available now make that job a lot easier than ever before.

Recently I was looking through my collection of images for some that would make good Black and White prints. I found one that was a nice beach scene at sunrise on Gwynns Island on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Mathews County, Virginia. Most of my conversions of color images are done using a Black and White layer in Photoshop. That works well because it’s possible to manipulate the image to come up with nice contrast by tweaking the red, blue, yellow, cyan and magenta sliders. I did that to my beach image, but wasn’t really satisfied. I decided to add a Selective Color layer and play with the whites, neutrals and blacks like I do frequently in color images. It came to me that if one is working with a color image with a black and white layer, and added a selective color layer, one could then manipulate the cyan, yellow and magenta colors of the white selection to vary the gray tones of the highlights. By the same token, manipulating the same colors of the neutrals and blacks would allow the middle gray and black tones to be modified. To my surprise, it actually worked, and very well I might add.  The results are shown here.

The Gwynns Island Color Image

The image after adding the B&W layer and tweaking the colors for best effect.

The image showing the addition of the SC layer before any adjustments.

The following screen shots show the adjustments made to each of the white, neutral and black main selections of the selective color layer dialog, but not the effects that were obtained by each. You will have to try it on your own image to see the incremental effects.

Select "whites" from the menu and adjust the cyan, yellow and magenta sliders for best highlights.

Note that the SC layer is above the B&W layer in the stack. It must be moved under the B&W layer to obtain the desired results.

Leave the image in RGB mode or this technique will not work.

Select "neutrals" from the drop down menu and adjust the 3 color sliders to control the neutral tones.

Select the "blacks" from the drop-down menu and adjust the 3 color sliders to control the dark tones. These are much more sensitive to slight slider movements.

The final image after adjusting the whites, neutrals and blacks. It is possible to go back to the B&W layer and further tweak the sliders there.

Compare the final image above with this one using only the B&W layer.

After trying this technique on several images I have concluded that it works differently on some images than others. Generally the more different colors in the color image the more control you will have of the gray tones. It is also possible to tweak the red, yellow, cyan and other colors the same way as with the whites, neutrals and blacks. In some cases this will have no effect, and in others there will be an effect. You just have to try it and find out what works for a specific image.

In December 2009, Allinda Photography traveled to Oaxaca, Mexico to add another chapter to our photographic archives. This blog will give the reader an idea of what we photographed and our experience in this very different place compared with the USA. The images shown here were taken by both Linda and Al Warfield, photographers with Allinda Photography. There are many more images from our trip at http://www.allindaphoto.com/Bay-Photo-Store/Best of Oaxaca Mexico, and at http://community.webshots.com/user/warfiea. Where appropriate, links to albums or photos in these sites are included.

Panoramic view of Oaxaca City and mountains east

Oaxaca is a very colorful and interesting state in south-central Mexico.  Several Native American tribes constitute the majority of the inhabitants of Oaxaca, which has the Gulf of Mexico on the eastern border and the Pacific Ocean to the west.  It is not far from Belize and Guatemala to the south, and is about 5 hours by bus from Mexico City to the north.  The image above is a panoramic view of Oaxaca City from Cerro del Fortin, a high point in northwest Oaxaca City, the capital of Oaxaca.

Las Mariposas Hotel. A very convenient and inexpensive place to stay in Oaxaca City.

Our headquarters for the 2 weeks we were in Oaxaca was the Hotel Las Mariposas (“mariposas” means butterflies in Spanish) in the northeast quadrant of Oaxaca City.  More than a hotel, we actually had an apartment with a small kitchenette.  It was clean, secure, convenient to everywhere in Oaxaca City, and the people there were really great. Also, the rates were very reasonable. More images from Las Mariposas are available at http://travel.webshots.com/album/576517995CRyjWQ

If you plan to go there, be sure to make reservations many months ahead. http://www.lasmariposas.com.mx/

An example of the traffic situation in Oaxaca City, Mexico

(Left) Oaxaca City is very crowded with vehicles. You need a secure parking place if you have a rental car.  We walked everywhere in Oaxaca City. It’s faster than driving by far. But you have to be careful on the streets and sidewalks because there are lots of hazards: holes, obstacles, narrow sidewalks, etc. Once the side of a bus making a turn into a narrow street almost hit us! But we had no problems with crime. Most people were friendly, and it was very secure.

There were several categories of subject matter we wanted to photograph. These were: People, Scenery, interesting Doors and Windows, Architecture, Ruins and Artifacts, and Birds of Oaxaca.  Starting here is information on what we photographed, some of the places, and techniques we used.

People of Oaxaca (Street Photography)

The Zócala at noon. The Zócala is where people gather, and where events tend to occur.

People were our greatest interest in Oaxaca. One of the best places to photograph them was at the Zócala (Right), which is the central area of every town or city, where many events occur and people tend to congregate. In Oaxaca City the Zócala has an abundance of large trees that provide shade. A strategically located park bench where there is sunlight coming from behind your position and the background is dark, or at least not too light, is ideal.

Festival of Our Lady of Guadalupe at El Llano Park.

Another place that works well is the largest park in the town or city. In Oaxaca City, that is el Llano Park (Left). Sometimes the only people you will see are walking their dogs or exercising, but at others there are festivals, kiddy rides, bands playing, people dancing, food vendors, kids playing – you name it. The image above was taken at el Llano Park during the Festival of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and the rides and vendors were there to capitalize on the occasion.  Other images of el Llano Park can be found at http://travel.webshots.com/album/576517903XTPLOK

There are several techniques that can be used for images of people in places like the Zócala or the park. If you want sharp images, use a high shutter speed, and maybe a larger aperture to isolate one individual, or a smaller one for a group. Using my Canon EOS 1D Mark III,  I was able to set the ISO at 1600 or more if necessary and still get low noise and lots of versatility to get the shot I wanted. Linda’s Canon 40D was not as good for situations where high ISO settings are required, but noise reduction software such as Nik Dfine 2.0 can help greatly to remedy that deficiency.  Both of us used Raw files exclusively for all our photos, because otherwise it would have been difficult to overcome some of the difficult lighting situations we encountered.  Either Camera Raw or Lightroom were used for processing the files. Photoshop CS4 was used for final processing where needed. Two examples of the most common approach we used are shown below: use of sharp focus on moving subjects with strong light but dark backgrounds.

Family in Sunlight at the Zócala in Oaxaca City, Mexico.

On the Right is an image of a young family in bright sunlight was taken at the Zócala as they walked by my well-positioned park bench. Note the sunlit faces and dark background.  Canon 1D Mark III, Canon 70-200 mm f/2.8L IS lens, 1/320 sec@f/16, at 400 ISO, focal length 120 mm from about 20 feet.  A medium telephoto lens with image stabilizations is needed to enable hand-holding the camera, and to allow enough distance to remain candid.

Woman with her young daughter at the Zócala, dressed for the festival of the Lady of Guadelupe.

This image (Left) was taken at el Llano Park during a festival. The dark background gives this image a nice quality. I printed it and framed it with a double dark gray mat system in a black gallery frame, and it looks fantastic! Notice the pattern on the daughter’s dress, which was worn to celebrate Our Lady of Guadalupe. Canon 1D Mark III with a 300 mm Canon f/4L IS lens, 1/200 sec@f/9, at 800 ISO, 300 mm.

Blur created by people walking past at the Zocala

Sometimes it works well to use a low shutter speed and pan the camera with the moving subject(s). This creates a slightly (or not so slightly) blurry image with a streaked background. This image (Right) was taken at 0.3 sec@f/16, 50 ISO, focal length 135 mm. The amount of blur and streaking depends on the shutter speed, focal length, aperture, and the distance to the subject and background. In some circles that approach is more likely to produce a winning photograph, especially juried mixed media art exhibits. These tend to be judged by people with questionable knowledge of what constitutes a good photograph. You may have to do something to surprise them, or they won’t look twice at your image. Fuzzy images tend to work better than sharp ones in that case. Some people say that is the “New York fuzzy look”. Go figure! It’s strange that some so-called art experts have so little knowledge about photography.  (Actually, I like some of these images.)  It’s a subjective thing, that’s all I can say.

Every town has at least one market, and there are several in Oaxaca City. These can also be good places for people pictures. There are several types of markets. I have shown a few examples here, and more are available at http://www.allindaphoto.com/Bay-Photo-Store/Best of Oaxaca Mexico, and at http://travel.webshots.com/album/576517903XTPLOK?start=72.

A display of numerous works at Oaxacan Institute of Crafts (Regional Assoc. of Crafts of Oaxaca), in Oaxaca City

This market (Left)  is called the Institute of Crafts, and there are all kinds of crafts displayed there.  After I had taken 15-20 images of various craft items I was told that pictures are not allowed. Oh well, there were no signs with a camera crossed out, so how was I supposed to know? The images are not shown on our website. But the objects there were very interesting.

Mitla Market. The vegetable section. This market is very diverse, and has everything people need, as well as cooked food, etc.

Mitla is a town about an hour away from Oaxaca City, and it has a very large and diverse market. This image (Right) shows one area where mainly vegetables are sold.  Notice the colored tarps that are used to keep debris from trees off and provide some shade.  The light that comes through them gives interesting color casts to the photos.  The people there are very interesting as well.  Several other images taken at this market are at http://travel.webshots.com/album/576517903XTPLOK?start=60.

Grasshoppers, and other tasty morsels at Oaxaca Center Market

This is the main market in Oaxaca City, and is very large, crowded, and has just about everything you would ever want. This photo was taken just outside the market, where a vendor was selling  grasshoppers, a favorite snack of the people here.  Sorry, we didn’t try any.  A few other photos can be seen at http://travel.webshots.com/album/576517903XTPLOK?start=48

Doors, Windows, and Walls

Oaxaca is a very colorful place, and you can find scenes that make great decorative prints to work with specific types of decor. A few examples are shown here. As you will see below, images like these frequently require some expertise with Photoshop to bring out the inherent qualities in them. Many more photos of this type are at http://travel.webshots.com/album/576461066lvgrIt and at http://www.allindaphoto.com/Bay-Photo-Store/Best of Oaxaca Mexico.

Oaxaca Pizza restaurant. The front of the "Pizza Rustica Ristorante" in Oaxaca city.

This red wall (Left) with a painted, carved wood pizza restaurant sign, makes a very nice image that might appeal to someone’s taste for decorating. As is frequently true, the sign in the center was not very easy to see in the original file, and selective editing was required to produce this image. The print, in a black mat with gray inner mat it makes an attractive display.

The interesting pattern created by the tiles over the window on the yellow wall (Below Right) seems likely to attract the attention of people with the need to decorate their homes or restaurants. Note that images like this seldom come out with the horizontal and vertical lines parallel to the edges, so some Photoshop work is required to align all that properly.

Oaxaca is a very colorful place, and people frequently decorate their houses in an elegant way. This is one example.

Café La Antiqua, a great place for coffee and breakfast or lunch.

In this image (Left), the curving white wall makes a good contrast to the clay pot and cactus in the dark interior of this café. Our girls like this one because it has Linda’s good eye for composition as its source. She took it while we were seated at a table in the café, shooting toward the restaurant portion of it. Some selective work in Photoshop was done by Al to bring out the contrast and colors in the image.

Graffiti

Oaxaca has graffiti on just about every wall in easy reach, and some not very easy to reach. Some of it is very artistic, although much of it has been defaced by others writing over it. Here are a couple of the better examples.

Example of graffiti done in color, from a wall on Oaxaca City.

This work (Right) was near our hotel, and is fairly simple compared to many others we saw.  But it was not compromised by people scribbling on it as were many of the other examples we photographed.

Another example of graffiti in Oaxaca, this time in black and white.

Black and white graffiti art (Left) is not as common as color, and this one is simple and clean.

Scenes in Oaxaca

Surrounded by mountains, and with very colorful houses, vehicles, and people, it’s easy to find good scenes in Oaxaca. Here are two out of many examples. Others can be seen at http://www.allindaphoto.com/Bay-Photo-Store/Best-of-Oaxaca-Mexico/.

The central portion of the town of Tule, about an hour away from Oaxaca City. The main feature of this town is the huge cypress tree, left of the center in this photo.

This image (Below Right) is a stitched panoramic of the central part of the town of Tule, about an hour from Oaxaca City. This is where a huge 2000 year old cypress tree stands, and is the main feature of the town. The tree is 1/3 of the way from the left and looks small in this image, but that is a deception. It would take almost a minute to walk all the way around this tree trunk, if that were possible.  A fence prevents the public from getting that close. A very impressive photo of the tree trunk is at http://www.allindaphoto.com/Bay-Photo-Store/Best-of-Oaxaca-Mexico/11114552_xyXmc – 778615889_PyZo3

The Ethnobotanical Garden at Santo Domingo, in Oaxaca City. The garden houses a large collection of native plants and trees, and English-speaking tours are available.

The Ethnobotanical Garden in Oaxaca City (Left) is located at the former Santo Domingo Convent, and English language tours are available at specific times. The tours also provide details about the history of the structures and plants there. Their collection of native plant and tree species of the area is spectacular. This is a fantastic place to see and photograph.

Architecture

The churches in Oaxaca are spectacular. The detail is almost mind-boggling.

Basilica de la Soledad

The image (Right) is a church in southwest Oaxaca City. Note the detail in the facade. The interior is also spectacular. Adjacent to the Basilica is the Socrates Garden Market, where you can get very tasty items to eat and drink.

A ceiling found in the Santo Domingo de Guzman, a large and very elegant church in Oaxaca City.

On the Left is the ceiling in one section of Templo de Santo Domingo de Gauzman. Due to the size of the ceilings I took several shots and stitched them together in Photoshop. As easily visible in the above photo, the interior of this church is inlayed in gold. The detail of the artwork is exquisite, and there are several distinctly different sections. Other photos are viewable as well.

http://www.allindaphoto.com/Bay-Photo-Store/Best-of-Oaxaca-Mexico/11114552_xyXmc – 778617842_EYWUY

Ruins and Artifacts: As is true most anywhere in Mexico, there is no shortage of ruins, and the artifacts than come from them. A few examples are shown here.

Panoramic photo of the main area of Monte Alban showing all the buildings

Oaxaca was settled hundreds of years BC. On Monte Alban, which towers high above Oaxaca City, some of the original structures are preserved, and others were built on top by cultures that originated between about 100 and 800 AD. This image (Left) was taken from the top of Monte Alban in several frames and stitched together in Photoshop. Tours to Monte Alban are available from many of the hotels, including Las Mariposas, and from other tour companies. Monte Alban is also a great place to see birds, but that usually means arriving very early – before the tour buses arrive. We did see a few after arriving on the first bus available in the morning.

Pottery found on Monte Alban. This was photographed at Santo Domingo Cultural Center in Oaxaca City.

There are also artifacts that were obtained from archeological digs there available at the Monte Alban visitor center, and at galleries in Oaxaca City. Especially the gallery at Santo Domingo Cultural Center, which has a huge private collection of artifacts, such as the pottery in the  image below (Left), but also figurines, stone carvings, tapestries, etc. We were able to successfully photograph many of these items using ISO settings as high as 3200, and shutter speeds as low as 1/10 sec.

Mitla Ruins - detail of the walls. Carefully cut and laid stones create patterns, called grecas.

There are other ruins, such as the ones in Mitla, about an hour from Oaxaca City. In this photo, details of the hand-tooled bricks that make up the walls are shown. These bricks were made to fit together so well that mortar was not needed in construction. Most of our photography was done outdoors, with available light, but in some cases we had to resort to high ISO settings.

Birds of Oaxaca

We have a passion for birds, and like to photograph as many as possible on our trips. We saw and photographed quite a few at el Llano Park, and also some on a guided tour.

Vermilion Flycatcher, Paseo Juarez el Llano, a park in Oaxaca City

The image (Left) is a Vermillion Flycatcher photographed in el Llano Park one morning before breakfast. Generally we could see plenty of birds between 7-9 or 10 AM if there was little activity there, but when the festival was there we had to go to another smaller park nearby. The park was only 1/2 block from Las Mariposas, and many were new to us. There were also wintering species from the USA and Canada. Interestingly, all this was news to the guide we hired for a day later during our stay. He didn’t have any idea that the park would be a good place for birds.

Boucard's Wren on Morning Glory Tree buds. Near the thorn forest, Teotitlan, Oaxaca, Mexico. This bird is endemic here.

This photo (Left) shows a Boucard’s Wren perched on a morning glory tree in the thorn forest near Teotitlan. The wren is endemic to Oaxaca. Our guide did take us to a few places we wouldn’t have been able to get to on our own. And we got some good photos in those places. Many more birds were seen and some photographed on the one-day tour, which also took us to a reservoir and up into the pine-oak forest, but the trails were primitive, foliage was dense, making it a difficult place to photograph.

Altogether in our trip to Oaxaca we saw about 70 species and photographed about 30-40 species. Linda used a Canon 40D with a Canon 100-400 mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens. I used a Canon 1D Mark III with a 300 mm f/1.4 Canon IS lens and either 1.4X or 2X Extenders. Most of our bird photos were taken at f/8 or f/11, at ISO of 400-1600, and at shutter speeds of 1/500 sec or higher. Our photos of birds in Oaxaca are available at http://travel.webshots.com/album/576458082XgIGhKand at http://www.allindaphoto.com/Bay-Photo-Store/Birds-of-Oaxaca-Mexico/10996846

Advice for Travelers to Oaxaca

Here is some good information we can pass on to anyone who wants to go to this area or similar areas in Mexico; namely, areas other than major tourist locations such as Cancun where foreign languages and currency are generally accepted. First, it’s a good idea to either have some ability to speak Spanish, or have someone along who does. We didn’t have either of these, and it made things a little difficult. Second, have several hundred American dollars that can be exchanged to Mexican Pesos, and have at least 2 different ATM cards that can be used in Mexico. Credit cards are also needed, and you need to tell your bank(s) where you are going before you leave home. Very important: have the phone numbers needed to call the bank from a foreign country in your possession somewhere other than the card itself. It may not be available on the bank’s website. Most things such as hotels and food at restaurants are very inexpensive, so you will do fine, but it may not seem that way if you have problems getting enough Pesos. If you will need to make cell phone calls, make sure your phone will work there.

Bon Voyage!