I grew up at swim meets. Weekends were a fun respite from long weekday hours following the black line. We got to run around with our friends, eat tons of Starburst, warm up a little and race for about one minute three times in a day. It must have been a slog for my parents! So can photos of swimming be at all interesting?

I recently started experimenting with different tonal finishes to my swimming images, trying to create a little more interest in a well-covered genre of sports photography. Contrary to my initial logic, I started to remove all the blues, purples and magenta colors. Imagine water with no blue! I then pumped up the shadows and white tones while decreasing contrast. What resulted was a an emphasis on the skin tones and good muscle definition, bringing the athletes out of the busy background.

Take the image above as an example. The cap on the swimmer was actually blue and the lane lines were alternating green and white. These edits completely change the composition and, in my opinion, bring more emphasis on the swimmer while eliminating pretty, but distracting colors.

Close-ups with a good layer of water and splash play well to this edit, especially if one’s images were captured at a high shutter speed so the water is not blurred. I shot these generally around 1/4000 with a shallow depth of field. The water on the skin and cap make for a very immersed feel.

Now for those of you who are former or current swimmers, you know how quirky we can all be, especially before a race. We all have our unique pre-race rituals to simultaneously psych ourselves up and intimidate our foes. The RAW image of the above picture was a jumble of color, lines and people. Using the edits I described, I was able to better isolate an incredible high-knee jump by one competitor so he stood out from the background. Trust me, his antics were not lost on the racer to his right!

So who knew that removing blue from swimming photos could lead to powerful images that straddle the line between color and black and white? It may not comport with your personal tastes, but it was a fun experiment. I would love to hear your comments on this!

For a full gallery of this shoot, including color as well as these edits, please click HERE.