Filter on Through

When Jen first suggested this week's theme of filters in photography, I was a little hesitant.  My initial fear was that I didn't have anything for that particular theme, since the few times I've used filters have been for lighting correction.  Fortunately, Jen and I had just played around with some interesting fabric and done a few shots, which I then happened to have edited using photo filters.  This process got me thinking of a few of the other times I've utilized a filter when editing in photo shop, and voila... a blog post.

Jane at the Celtic Cross

So, on to some tinting.  This first photograph was taken during the graveyard shoot with Jen (featured in last Wednesday's "When Photos Go Wrong" post) and Jane.  This particular photo features our lovely friend Jane as the model du jour.  That entire photo shoot suffered from the drizzly weather of the day, creating a rather dreary lighting throughout the photographs.  At times, this lighting worked fairly well with the feel of the shoot; however, at others, the overall effect was rather flat. Such was the case with this photograph originally, which was a shame given the fairly spiffy composition and great pose of the lovely model.  What to do?  First, I greatly enhanced the contrast on the cross, to add emphasis, then I desaturated the picture partially.  Then, I tinted the photograph twice, first using a lightly violet cooling filter, then using a deep orange/umber warming filter. 

Kathrine in Blue

This photograph features my cousin Katie as a model.  When I took this photo, we were horsing around with some truly retro clothing of my grandmother's stored away in an upstairs closet.  Believe it or not, this original version of this photo is quite yellow with the model's face looking ruddy.  The original is a really good picture, with Katie's light green eyes peeping through the pale blue gauze of a scarf.  Nevertheless, I can rarely resist playing with a photograph in photoshop, and a few filters later, we find this result.  I didn't really do much with this photo in terms of editing, despite the drastic difference from the original. I did lighten some of the shadows, but otherwise the tinting does all the work.  To achieve this effect, I applied a pale blue cooling filter at about 50% density. This provides a blue tone to the entire photograph, and most noticeably turns Katie's pale green eyes to a deep sea green color.

Jen and the Black Veil

And finally, the Jen photo I promised everyone at the beginning of the post (you know, now that I've shown that I do in fact photograph other models).  This was taken last Friday as I was packing up my crafting supplies Jen's general supervision.  I was sorting through and trashing various pieces when we came across this fabric.  Jen grabbed the fabric and started playing, and I grabbed my camera.  The lighting, as always in my bedroom, was super yellow.  The original photograph was pretty darn spiffy, but since Jen and I were already being ahhrtsy, I thought I might as well go all the way.  Commence editing.  First, I drastically and repeatedly increased the contrast of the photograph and then decrease the saturation slightly.  Then I applied a medium blue cooling filter at 25% density. And thus we have the super-awesomesauce you see here.

Next week, mayhap we will grace you with some nature photography.