One Four: Tibouchina 1 (Dreamy)

Dreamy Tibouchina flowers.

My first treatment of my chosen photo for September’s One Four Challenge was inspired by Robyn’s own photo of sweet peas (click here to see her photo). I loved the ethereal look of her flowers and she was kind enough to give me some tips.

I started out trying to match that look, but sort of wandered off into this soft, dreamy look instead! I made the following adjustments in Adobe Camera Raw: increased exposure, highlights, shadows and whites; decreased clarity; reduced luminance noise; increased luminance levels for the purples and magentas.

The flowers are from a dwarf Tibouchina “Cool Baby”: when they begin to open they are white with purple touches (left), and become a mauve colour when fully open (right).

A note about Tibouchinas: “Tibouchina /ˌtɪbuːˈkaɪnə/ is a genus of about 350 species of neotropical plants in the family Melastomataceae. They are trees, shrubs or subshrubs growing 0.5–25 m tall, and are known as glory bushes or glory trees. They are native to rainforests of Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America, especially Brazil. The name comes from an adaptation of a term for a member of this genus in an indigenous language of the Guianas. (from Wikipedia)