Ancient castle courtyard.

Courtyard of the ancient castle is especially pleasing on the evening after the sunset. The noisy tourist groups, accompanied by guides in a hurry, left it already and slow passage of time came back inside the ancient walls.

Ljubljana castle, entrance

Many friends told me that they filling presence in the courtyard when they are looking at the picture. They asked me how I created this filling and which post processing have I used. I have to say, at the begging, that this photo is not a composite or HDR and I didn’t use any advanced post processing in this case…

I have spent multiple evenings to catching the right image. Under the right I mean the picture how I was imaging it and how I would like it to be, so it would communicate my filling from the place. My eye was caught by the color contrast of warm yellows and cold blues. So it became obvious that picture must be composed around that. To increase depth I found a place where my foreground would be darker than main scene. I also blurred the nearby background on the right so it would be as our eye expects. That forces the eye to travel from the corner up to the mild ground where the ivy is brighter and sharper. On the left, there is a repetition patter of columns from the side to the middle. This receding pattern just confirms the filling from the right side. Bluish-ness of the pavement beneath and foreground on the right side is in contrast with warm yellow openings of the gallery on the left. I think that also stretches the space. When our eye reaches the portal there is again play of shadows and lights which creates extra depth. There is another element which forced me to spend one more evening catching the right moment… It is the sky which you can see behind the portal and tree silhouettes. I would like them to be exactly as it is depicted here and that brought an issue, either the sky was too dark on the moment when external lights balanced with embedded light or lights were coming later than I need it, but finally I succeed…

I have a strong feeling of accomplishment and excitement in such cases when everything goes as I anticipated and planned it to be 🙂

Cheers!

P.S. The look of the courtyard was changed shortly after the shot has been taken. Framing tree was totally cut off. The wall was cleaned from the ivy. So, it recalls world known phrase – “You could not step twice into the same river.” (Heraclitus)