[Color and Inspiration] A Quiet World in Cool Tones - Appreciating Landscape Photography Works

Cool color families, represented by blue, cyan, and blue-purple, are colors I frequently apply when grading my photos.

Blue is cold and serene, cyan is magical and grand, purple is mysterious and dreamlike. The atmosphere these cool tones bring is perfect for weather and moments like rainy days, overcast days, blue hour, dawn, and moonlit nights, and they are also excellent color matches for common scene elements such as snowy mountains, glaciers, sky, water surfaces, and clouds and mist.

In today's video, Thomas has compiled some of his own cool-toned landscape photography photos, hoping to give everyone some inspiration.

Video

▶ Watch the video tutorial on Bilibili

This is the illustrated companion to the video above — a wordless portfolio: Thomas set his cold-toned landscape photographs to music in a three-and-a-half-minute film. Blue is cold and serene, cyan magical and grand, purple mysterious and dreamlike. The four chapters below group the film's photos by color and scene for easy reference.

01 Blue: The Serenity of Ice and Mountains

The film opens with glaciers: the depth of a blue ice cave, the sweep of polar ice, a pyramid peak half-lost in cloud — blue is the keynote of the cold palette, born for snow mountains, glaciers and winter, carrying a hushed stillness within its cold (at 0:04 in the video).

02 Cyan: The Magic of Morning Mists and Wild Places

Cyan adds translucence and grandeur to blue. Morning mist gilds the dunes in a cyan-gold gradient; boats trail long wakes across jade water; glacial melt pools into a turquoise pond — shot in overcast, rain or at first light, cyan turns ordinary wilderness magical (at 0:43 in the video).

03 Night: Lights of Towns and Villages

Blue-hour towns are the cold palette's other home stage: a lakeside village's church and windows, stilt houses on a foggy cliff, a warm-orange valley settlement — broad cold blue holds the frame while small warm lights do the accenting; that warm-cool complement is what makes cold-toned photos endlessly watchable (at 1:01 in the video).

04 Purple: Dreams of Dusk and Starry Nights

Purple is the cold palette's most dreamlike register: dawn and moonlit skies, alpenglow over Patagonia's granite spires, a tent beneath an arch of the Milky Way — as blue leans gently toward red, the mood slides from serene to mysterious and romantic, closing the film like a dream (at 2:19 in the video).

1. Three faces of the cold palette — blue's serenity, cyan's magic, purple's dreams — mapped to ice and mountains, misty wilds and starry dusks; 2. Cold tones suit rain, overcast, blue hour, dawn and moonlight — bad weather is good weather for cool-toned photos; 3. Keep a small warmth inside the cold: a lamp, a tent, a campfire, each a heartbeat in a cool world; 4. Grading starts at the shoot — first learn to wait for the light inside a cold world.

HD video:

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1DS4y1B7i9/

(See the video for more photos)

Bonus Preview

Cyan, purple, and blue are not only used extensively in my photography works; they are also familiar in the design of digital products.

For example, the famous wireless audio manufacturer for film and TV shooting, MOMA (猛玛), will bring new products like the color version of the LARK M1 wireless microphone to its 520 livestream this year!

Click the image below to directly draw 1 set, with the winners announced in the MOMA livestream room.

All the new products will be drawn and given away live in the livestream room. Thomas thinks this livestream room is a must-book!

Besides the color version microphone, this time the MOMA livestream room is also bringing a transceiver-in-one mini monitor, custom intercom headsets, and more. MOMA really dropped a lot of big moves for 520 this year!

1. Color Version LARK M1 Wireless Microphone

2. Transceiver-in-One Mini Monitor

After the legendary 007 mini monitor, MOMA is launching another mini monitor!

And according to the official post, it's a transceiver-in-one mini monitor, meaning it can serve as both a transmitter and a receiver, with its own screen for monitoring? Could this be another industry first?

3. Custom Intercom Headset

The MOMA Chuansheng wireless intercom system is their first packless intercom system. This time they're launching a single-headset custom edition, presumably as exclusive gifts for some photography teachers in the industry.

The custom edition features a bright yellow and black color scheme, combining industrial design with a fashionable touch.

Worn on the head for calls, it's also highly recognizable, almost like a noise-canceling headset!

4. Livestream Camera

MOMA is also releasing a livestream camera. Judging by the official images, it looks like a PTZ camera commonly used in livestream rooms, available in black and white!

It seems MOMA also plans to enter the livestream camera market. Combined with MOMA's video transmitters, microphones, and switchers, it could form a complete device ecosystem for livestream rooms!

If all the devices can be controlled in coordination, that would also be something to look forward to!

Releasing 4 products for one 520 - two limited custom edition products and two major new products.

Giving away red envelopes, new mini monitors, and so many sets of the LARK M1 color version!

They've even brought in prize sponsorships from many partner brands and other industries, including Skyworth TVs.

This livestream should be quite exciting. You can make a reservation for 20:00 tonight on 5.19!