Thematic Photographic 258 - Muted colors

Back alley light
Montreal, QC
February 2013

Light is a pretty incredible thing. Under the right conditions, it can make an otherwise colorful scene seem either more intense, or it can wash any sense of color out.

While even the most basic photo editing software these days lets you dial down the color of an existing photo, I'm a lot more partial to scenes where Mother Nature does the work on its own.

Like this scene. It's early on a bitterly cold winter morning in Montreal. I'm in a trendy converted industrial loft hotel that's tucked almost invisibly into a back alley off of trendy St. Denis street. The murk seems to have sucked the very spectrum out of the scene, with only the streetlight suggesting anything approaching warmth.

I decide I need to explore low-color scenes a little more. Hence this week's Thematic theme, "muted colors". Read on for more...

Your turn: Take a pic where the color is deliberately subtle - it can rage from full-on black-and-white, to sepia, to simply colors that aren't as vibrant as they might otherwise be. Remember, when interpreting a theme, there are no rights and wrongs: it is whatever you want it to be. Post the results to your blog, website, Facebook page, Twitter stream, or related web resource. Then leave a comment here letting folks know where to find it. Use the Twitter hashtag #ThematicPhotographic for bonus points. Visit other participants through the week and feel free to repeat the process - we encourage serial participation. For more info on how Thematic works, click here. Enjoy...and thanks!