More on Colored Filters

OK, more on colored filters. In my gym, we have a lot of blue mats on the floor and red mats along the walls. This makes for some nice uniform backgrounds if you've got the angle just right, but sometimes the color is just too distracting. I've been playing around with Picasa's filtered B&W option and found I can change the whole look of a picture depending on what I want to emphasize. The three photos below (from our Fourth of July workout) illustrate this. The first one shows the original color shot: a fair-skinned subject with interesting tattoos against a bright red background. It's ok as is, but the original photo doesn't do justice to the subject. So I can play around with the colored filters to achieve different effects.

   
In the second shot, I've used a color filter complimentary to the red mats: a green filter. This has the effect of blocking the light coming off of red objects, or darkening them. It's a nice option if I want to isolate the subject and make him stand out from the background, but in this particular case, the result also leaves his skin looking washed out and fades his tattoos which I want to emphasize. Another option to consider is to use a red filter. The red filter allows red light to pass (effectively making it lighter) while darkening complimentary colors. This results in less contrast between his skin and the background, but more defined ink and musculature, which is what I wanted.

My main complaint is that the focus is a little soft (remember this was my first day using my 50mm lens so I had it wide open (f/1.4) resulting in soft lines and a very shallow depth of field....) Still, not too shabby.