Grungy Tibouchina flowers.
From Dreamy last week to Grunge this week for the September One Four Challenge! I opened the raw file containing the adjustments I had made last week, and moved some sliders. The biggest changes were to clarity (way up), noise reduction (way down) and sharpening (way up). Bye bye soft and dreamy! I darkened the blacks, then shot the highlights and the luminance for the purples and magentas up to 100. The result is this stark, dirty look.
Here is week 1’s version:
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)
Flowers by Kaz 
I like it, tho I found the overbright right hand side much more noticeable this version round – perhaps a slight textural overlay to help counteract it a bit? And would add to the grunge – something from 2LO would do the trick nicely 🙂
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I take your point about the right hand brightness. (The light is coming from a window on the right.) I’ve never used 2LO, I’ll look into it. Could also be useful in future!
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2 Little Owls, she makes very artistic and painterly textures and offers some nice ones for free
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I’ve checked the web site, and see there’s also a free PDF book about using textures. Roll on edit 3 (or 4!).
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We get quite a few of her textures included in my PS courses, thats how I know about them 🙂 I am tempted to buy more of her other fancier ones but with the exchange rate dropping constantly, I can’t afford them 😦
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I know what you mean about the exchange rate! 😦
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the grunge edit adds great texture. I agree about 2LO textures…they are great and can be very subtle or very strong
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This could open a whole new world of edits!
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Nice work Karen, and a few of us are checking out the 2LO site!
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haha, there is going to be a rash of textures appearing soon! I’m thinking of one for my week 4 edit.
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I really like the texture and this weeks picture contrasts nicely to last weeks edit. I possibly would have applied the texture selectively to just the flower leaving the white background nice and clean. Nice Editing.
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Thanks Ben. So many different ways to edit, aren’t there? Actually, your suggestion is very like what I’m considering for week 3, though it will be another photo rather than a texture — if it works. 😉
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I like the “edgy” feel this version has. I think the centers of the flowers stand out much better in this version then the dreamy version.
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I noticed that too. And those long, pointed stamens deserve attention, I think.
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I like them both. Nice selection for editing. Well done ..!!!
Isadora 😎
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Thank you Isadora. I did edit 3 last night, and I think it’s pretty cool! I’m tempted to put it up now to share it, but I’ll wait until Monday.
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I really like this grittier version Kaz. It just works so well.
All good suggestions here, so will look forward to your week 3 edition 😃😃
Textures are such fun! Enjoy 😃
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Thanks Robyn. Week 3 is in draft and ready to go! I’ll play with textures for week 4 I think.
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Sounds good 😃
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