The Shot
Chambord is located in woodland south of Blois. We had approached it on a long cyclepath through the woods. It is the largest Chateau on the Loire and was built as a “Hunting Lodge” for the King. There is a central stairway in the middle of the Chateau constructed as a double Helix. This Shot was taken inside the stairwell looking up.
Taken with a Sony A700 with a Sigma 10-20 Wide Angle Zoom at 10mm. Taken handheld with auto bracketing for HDR. 3 raw images 2EV spacing. Opened in Photoshop first and each image noise reduced with Noiseware Pro and saved as tiffs.
Photomatix
Outputted in Photomatrix to detail enhancer. Click the Camera name top right for Exif details and the settings used.
Photoshop
Original image -2EV copied in as new layer with layer mask and used to reduce highlight of the outside light at the top.
Original image 0EV copied in as new layer with layer mask and used to reduce low light noise in the shadow areas.
General enhancement with adjustment layers of levels and curves.
Contrast increased 56 points.
Vibrance increased 76 points
Noiseware Pro
Unsharp Mask
Resources
For Licensing and more pictures see Edwin Jones Photography
Tags: France Chateau de chambord chambord blois architecture Castle Chateau chateaux building symmetry loire chateau Europe loire HDR photography photos photo picture pictures sony wide angle texture pic dslr high dynamic range photomatix tonemapped tonemapping dslra550 holiday vacation tower tunnel darkness light stairway helix double helix staircase inside interior bâtiment symétrie photographie grand angle la texture de vacances tour un tunnel l'obscurité la lumière escalier hélice double hélice intérieur
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The Shot
One of the most remarkable features of Chambord is the double spiral staircase. It is believed that Leonardo da Vinci might have designed this unusual stairway which consists of two parallel stairways wrapped around one another, where two people can walk up and down without ever meeting.
The double-helix staircase leads to each of the three floors of the chateau.
Each of these floors has 4 hallways leading to the central Stairway. This image was taken in one of those Hallways
Taken with a Sony A700 with a Sigma 10-20 Wide Angle Zoom at 10mm. Taken handheld with auto bracketing for HDR. 3 raw images 2EV spacing. Opened in Photoshop first and each image noise reduced with Noiseware Pro and saved as tiffs.
Photomatix
Outputted in Photomatix to detail enhancer. Click the Camera name top right for Exif details and the settings used.
Photoshop
General adjustments in levels and curves to enhance. Layer mask used to exclude a bright area of the fireplace.
Vibrance adjustment layer increased 75 points.
One of the original images 0EV copied and pasted as new layer. Layer mask to exclude all of picture and brush used to show the original image to cut down highlight of part of fireplace using brush opacity to cut down obvious changes.
Healing brush with content aware used to remove barriers and a fire extinguisher.
Perspective correction was done using Filter-Lens Correction- Custom-Perspective Vertical and then the scale slider to crop.
Noiseware Pro
Unsharp Mask
Resources
For Licensing and more pictures see Edwin Jones Photography
Tags: France Chateau de chambord chambord blois architecture Castle Chateau chateaux building symmetry loire chateau Europe loire HDR photography photos photo picture pictures sony wide angle texture pic dslr high dynamic range photomatix tonemapped tonemapping dslra550 holiday vacation light stairway helix double helix staircase inside interior floor ceiling reliefs bâtiment symétrie photographie grand angle la texture de vacances la lumière escalier hélice double hélice intérieur
© All Rights Reserved
The Shot
The Chateau at Usse is a few miles from the Loire and west of Tours. This Chateau was the location for the Sleeping Beauty Story and the original from which the Disney Castle was designed.
Four of us were cycling towards it. I took the picture while cycling with the SLR hung round my neck and one hand on the handlebars. The resulting slanting horizon was corrected using an angled crop in Photoshop.
The camera used was a Sony A700 with a Sigma 10-20 Wide Angle Zoom at 13mm. The image was opened in Camera Raw and 2 additional images were created at =2EV and -2Ev for a “false HDR”. The 3 raw images were opened in Photoshop first and each image noise reduced with Noiseware Pro and saved as tiffs.
Photomatix
Outputted in Photomatix to detail enhancer. Click the Camera name top right for the Exif information and details of the settings used.
Photoshop
It was a dark cloudy day so I selected and copied a sunny sky from another picture, pasted it to this one as a new layer. Then the move tool was used to bring the new sky into the right position. The boundary was tidied up using a layer mask and brush.
General adjustments in levels and curves to enhance.
Brightness Contrast adjustment layer used with layer mask to increase the brightness of the Chateau.
Saturation Adjustment Layer, yellows used to tone down the brightness of the Yellow jacket of the Cyclist on the right.
Vibrance increased
Noiseware Pro
Unsharp Mask a little sharpening low radius and higher amount.
Duplicate layer with mask to apply extra sharpening to the road only with low amount and high radius.
Edit-convert to profile- sRGB used to change the color profile to web friendly to retain saturation of colours on uploading to web
Resources
For Licensing and more pictures see Edwin Jones Photography
Tags: France Chateau Usse Usse Chateau Usse Castle building Castle Chateau chateaux symmetry loire chateau Europe loire Disney Disney Castle Sleeping beauty sleeping beauty castle cycling cyclists bicycle bicyclist cycle touring touring HDR photography photos photo picture pictures sony wide angle texture pic dslr high dynamic range photomatix tonemapped tonemapping dslra550 sigma holiday vacation color colour king photographie history old castelo castels francia castillo
© All Rights Reserved
The Shot
The Royal Château de Blois is located in the Loir-et-Cher département in the Loire Valley, in France. The residence of several French kings, it is also the place where Joan of Arc went in 1429 to be blessed by the Archbishop of Reims before departing with her army to drive the English from Orléans.
Built in the middle of the town that it effectively controlled, the château of Blois comprises several buildings constructed from the 13th to the 17th century around the main courtyard shown in this view.
Tripods are not permitted and all cases, bags and backpacks have to be checked into a locker.
Taken with a Sony A700 with a Sigma 10-20 Wide Angle Zoom at 10mm. Taken hand held with auto bracketing for HDR. 3 raw images 2EV spacing. Opened in Photoshop first and each image noise reduced with Noiseware Pro and saved as tiffs.
Photomatix
Outputted in Photomatix to detail enhancer. Click the Camera name top right for the Exif information and details of the settings used.
Photoshop
General adjustments in levels and curves to enhance. Layer masks were used to exclude highlight areas.
Saturation Adjustment Layer, Master slight decrease
Vibrance increased .
The -2 EV picture was copied in and excluded with a layer mask. A brush at low opacity was used to bring it back in to tone down highlight areas in the clouds.
Perspective editing in Photoshop using Filter-Lens Correction- Custom-Perspective Vertical and then the scale slider to crop.
Noiseware Pro
Unsharp Mask
Resources
For Licensing and more pictures see Edwin Jones Photography
Tags: France Chateau Blois Blois Chateau Blois Castle chateau royal blois building Castle Chateau chateaux loire chateau Europe loire medieval town courtyard touring HDR photography photos photo picture pictures sony wide angle texture pic dslr high dynamic range photomatix tonemapped tonemapping dslra550 sigma holiday vacation color colour king photographie history old castelo castels francia Castillo vienne henry royal royale clouds sky cobbles
© All Rights Reserved
The Shot
The Château de Villandry is a castle-palace located in Villandry, on the banks of the Loire a short way west of Tours, France.
In 1906, Joachim Carvallo purchased the property and poured an enormous amount of time, money and devotion into repairing it and creating what many consider to be the most beautiful gardens anywhere. Its famous Renaissance gardens include a water garden, ornamental flower gardens, and vegetable gardens. The gardens are laid out in formal patterns created with low box hedges. Like all the other châteaux of the Loire Valley, it is a World Heritage Site.
Taken with a Sony A700 with a Sigma 10-20 Wide Angle Zoom at 10mm. Taken hand held with auto bracketing for HDR. 3 raw images 2EV spacing. Opened in Photoshop first and each image noise reduced with Noiseware Pro and saved as tiffs.
Photomatix
3 Tiffs outputted in Photomatix to detail enhancer. Click the Camera make top right to see exif information and details of settings used.
Photoshop
General adjustments in levels and curves to enhance.
Vibrance adjustment layer
Hue/Saturation layer greens to reduce saturation a little in the greenery
Straighten horizon using ruler tool, rotate arbitrary which automatically gives the correct angle and then crop.
Perspective editing in Photoshop to straighten converging verticals in the Chateau using Filter-Lens Correction- Custom-Perspective Vertical and then the scale slider to crop.
Noiseware Pro
Unsharp Mask
Resources
For Licensing, Prints, Products and more pictures see Edwin Jones Photography
Tags: France Chateau Villandry Villandry Chateau Villandry chateau and Gardens Villandry gardens gardens formal gardens English gardens hedges turrets architecture building Castle Chateau chateaux symmetry loire chateau Europe loire HDR photography photos photo picture pictures sony wide angle texture pic dslr high dynamic range photomatix tonemapped tonemapping dslra550 sigma holiday vacation color colour king photographie history old castelo castels francia castillo
© All Rights Reserved