The Calm of Blue

The Calm Of Blue At Beynac

As the fading warmth of an autumn evening gently becomes a slight chill, Rachel and I sit cozily, immersed in the blueness of a French countryside that prefers peace to noise, slowness to busy-ness. And we’re okay with that. Behind us, we’re watched by a medieval castle that has over-looked the enchanting town of Beynac-et-Cazenac for almost 1,000 years.

A narrow cobble road winds left and right up a steep hill. On each side sit houses so old they’ve seen perhaps a dozen generations, or more, come and go. This is a scene more fitting of a Brothers Grimm fairytale with witches and wizards than real life. The road leads ever upwards, through a stone arch with a lantern hanging overhead, swaying softly in the wind, past a tiny church, until you reach the castle gates.

The view from this height demands you to stop thinking about photography – it’s something you simply have to look at. From here, you could see an army coming from miles away, an obvious reason for the castle’s location.

From the grass on which we’re now sitting, we watch the sun say a final farewell for today. A fisherman to our left begins packing his bags, ready to return home. I take a few photos, then settle back down. It’s seems a cliché to say that moments like this cause you to slow down and think clearly, but it is often the case.

When there’s nothing driving you to think quickly, or intensely, you simply don’t need to. In some respects, you stop ‘doing’ and start ‘being’. As we sit, with no agenda, no pressing deadlines or goals to consider, we let this peaceful scene influence our moods. And we just enjoy whatever it is that makes this place so beautiful.

We spent 3 months around this magical region in the South of France. It was the most relaxing, rejuvenating time of my life.

Today’s Photo – Blue hour shot at Beynac

Exposure blending only took a minute or so, using the Rapid Blend If technique I teach in my Cityscape Tutorials. Since I wanted to keep the image dark and moody, and protect the shadows, I only used a tiny amount of the brightest exposure to bring out details in the tress and the floating platform. The rest was done by combining the medium and lower exposures.

I used Nik Color Efex’s Dynamic Contrast to add local contrast. Then I added a Darken/Lighten Centre filter to change the emphasis of light in the image towards the sun, which also created a slight vignette. I added a gentle contrast adjustment through a Curves layer. I lifted the colours by increasing overall Vibrance slightly. I then added a little bit more energy and colour to the sunset, and finished it all off with a square vignette created with the Rectangular Marquee tool with a feather of 250.

Below you can see what the images looked like before processing. Before that, here is a quick preview of two of the six full workflows that will be included in the brand new version of The Art of Digital Blending, which is available in June. Remember, existing students who have this course, also known as The Art of Advanced HDR, this will be emailed to you for free. You can read more about it here – Art of Digital Blending 2

Preview 1

Before/After Comparison

After Processing

Original Files Before Processing