From “Irises, Gladioli, and Shellflowers” in Garden Bulbs for the South by Scott Ogden:
“The good foliage, large flowers, and noble deportment of Iris pallida may be seen in many of its descendants. This species and I. variegata, a central European species with yellow standards and brown-stippled falls, are believed to have been the principal forerunners of garden irises. The early crosses between them developed mixed purplish or bicolored blooms. In the Victorian catalogs of English nurseryman Peter Barr, these were listed in various ‘species’ classes based on the patterns of their flowers. Lavender to violet blooms, such as the old variety ‘Princess Beatrice‘, were grouped with the pallidas, while yellows and maroons fell among the variegatas. Iris amoena, a strain with white standards and purple falls, was nicknamed the agreeable iris for its pleasant mix of colors. The plicatas bore white blooms frilled with edgings of lavender or purple, as did the elderberry-scented I. sambucina….
“So many hybrids have been made among these old sections that it is impossible now to find one’s way with these antique names. In humble country gardens, one still sees irises that look no different from those painted by Redoute, as they grew for the Empress Josephine at Malmaison….
“‘Madame Chereau‘, a nineteenth-century plicata, may still be seen in the South. An assiduous search through April gardens and countrysides will reassemble several of these old varieties, as well as many more recent hybrids of value.
“During the first half of the twentieth century, intermediate strains of irises received serious attention from breeders for the first time. Several irises from this period are now common denizens of Southern gardens.”
From “Breaking the Lights: Diary Poem”‘ in Memoir: Poems 2007-2016 by Neville Keery:
Pleasures to be taken
In 24 hours of retired domesticity:
Get up to open the downstairs curtains
And lift the blinds before making breakfast.
Eight violet iris heads are ready
To unfurl in the front garden….
Hello!
This is the third of three posts with photos of irises with white standards and colored falls from Oakland Cemetery that I photographed earlier this year. The first post is Amoena and Plicata Iris Patterns (1 of 3), and the second post is Amoena and Plicata Iris Patterns (2 of 3).
The photos in this last post show irises with a typical plicata pattern: the petals of the falls are lightly colored or white near the throat of each blossom, and that white is surrounded by color of increasing intensity with stitching or etching that radiates from the center toward the edges.
The stitched color around the edges is actually a blend of purple and blue, in approximately equal amounts; and the petals are thinner and more translucent than those of the amoena irises in the first two posts. As I mentioned in the last post, the range within which color can be adjusted when editing these plicata images is more limited than the amoenas because of those biological and color characteristics. We can see that in these two color temperature variations…
… where the image on the left is set to a slightly cooler white balance and the image on the right is slightly warmer. With either variation, we lose the subtle appearance of the petal’s blue and purple blend spread across hundreds of individual color cells, with both — especially the warmer one — looking a lot like the colors are too close to a flat, single-toned pastel.
And there are other visual cues that the image’s color balance isn’t correct that can be seen by examining all the color relationships present in either version. First, the standards — which should be close to pure white — show a light blue color cast in the cooler image on the left, and a light yellow color cast in the warmer image on the right. Second, the same color casts are present in the leaves surrounding the flower: they’re too blue or too yellow for the overcast lighting conditions present when I took the photos.
Here’s a way to see how these color variations — which may seem subtle when you view any of the images in isolation — compare to each other. To start, select the middle image below, which is the final color-corrected version.
Now, from the middle image, page to the left to compare it to the cooler version and to the right to compare it with the warmer version. You should then readily see how color correction purifies the whites in the standards and renders more accurate greens — which, because color balance corrections apply to an entire image — has the effect of producing accurate blue and purple tones in the flower’s standards. And if you spend enough time bouncing among the comparisons, you should also see that the center image appears to reveal more detail and a sharper focus — even though detail and sharpness were not adjusted and the only difference between it and the other two is the color balance. Color casts tend to obscure the contrasts our eyes see that we interpret as sharp focus and accurate detail, so the benefits of color correction extend beyond just producing accurate colors.
All this explains why my approach to color correction for photos of botanical subjects has evolved into a “whole image” approach. I aim to represent greens accurately and improve the purity of whites when deciding what color balance best reflects how the plants appeared in the lighting conditions of their natural environment — which also helps properly display the fine variations in color and detail that complex biological structures like irises contain.
Thanks for reading and taking a look!
