Selective coloring: Hasan's Flags

 
Perhaps it's because the Olympics are just around the corner and I'm feeling particularly patriotic. Or perhaps it's because my gym has these frickin' H-U-G-E flags hanging from the rafters and they demand your attention as soon as you walk into the gym. Either way, I was moved to feature them in one of my pics since they are such an iconic part of One Spirit. Some gyms have T-Shirts from all their affiliate friends, some gyms have photographs featuring all their alums, we have flags representing the countries of all the martial arts styles we practice.

So I went through my archive and found a shot that featured the flags prominently. This shot is crazy emotional too because Hasan and Yong were doing Fran, going head-to-head, while Treefrog and everybody else was cheering them on. His facial expression says it all: he's giving it all he's got.

Rather than convert to black and white (as I do so many of my other pics) I decided to emphasize the flag by doing selective coloring using GIMP, a free photo editor available online. Selective coloring can be a little tedious depending on the shape you are coloring, but if you've got a suitable pic then it's worth the time investment. Here's an excellent tutorial that walks you through the steps: Selective Color Tutorial

If you don't want to bother with all that, all hope is not lost. Picasa has a very rudimentary feature that will let you achieve a similar effect. The Focal Black & White feature lets you identify a circular region on your photograph within which it preserves color; everything else is converted to grayscale. That's how I did the image behind the title in my blog header- kettlebells are round so Picasa's circular shape was perfect. If I had wanted to do any other shape, or multiple shapes, I'd have to use GIMP or Photoshop to do it as above.

Now, a word on cropping. In the picture above, I chose to focus on Hasan and the American flag, however the cropping doesn't let you see the whole picture. In the one below, you see what was actually going on- Jorn was coaching Hasan through each thruster, pumping his fist in the air with each extension and driving the crowd into a frenzy. Hasan wasn't alone lifting that barbell, it was truly a team effort. In honor of that team spirit, I decided to color a second version showing Jorn with raised fist and all of the flags in their full glory. Each picture tells a slightly different story, and I think each one is inspiring in their own right.