Filters and Colors

Rob commented on the “Valuable” picture, stating that Donna is green in the picture.

When I shot the picture, the only filter I might have had on the camera would be a circular polarizer. I generally don’t use color correction filters, prefering to balance colors in the computer. This doesn’t conflict with my philosophy of not doing in Photoshop what I couldn’t do in a wet lab, as there’s lots of room for color correction when making color prints, either from slides or from negatives.

Rob suggested adding a magenta filter, and other photographers I’ve talked to suggest either an 80A or a Deep Blue when shooting under conditions like this. So, I thought I might like to see what the results of using various filters on the image might have been. Photoshop CS2 comes with a new adjustment layer style called “Photo Filter…”, and it allows you to simulate the use of several popular traditional photographic filters.

Here, then, are the results:

Click thumbnail for larger image

Original	Magenta Filter
80A Filter	Deep Blue Filter

All of the filters have unfortunate side effects, such as affecting skin tones, altering the background colors and adding color tinges to the white areas of her shirt, and none are terribly effective in completely removing the greenish tinge Rob complains about in the shadows or areas where light is reflected on to Donna — which, based upon the scene, appear natural to me. Based on the results of the test, the 80A looks the best of the filtered images.

After spending the time on this experiment, I still find that I prefer the original image. It is a much more faithful rendition of “the moment.” And, capturing a moment is what photography is all about.