Painting photos

[LensBaby]

Does anybody know anything about painting photos in photoshop to make them look like art. Someone wants me to do this to one of their photos, and I am not quite sure how to do it.

[gjtoth]

Does anybody know anything about painting photos in photoshop to make them look like art. Someone wants me to do this to one of their photos, and I am not quite sure how to do it.

Check your artistic filters/effects. There should be at least one for oil painting. I'll have to check mine but, I think there is one for sketch and watercolor, too.

[LensBaby]

yeah I have that one. There is a way where you can actually paint on the photo where you want. Freehand...thanks for your help!

[dkippen]

LensBaby -

Have you found a way to do this yet?? If not, I have Photoshop WOW book that shows how to do this. I can look it up tonite after work if you're interested.

D. Kippen

[LensBaby]

Thanks that would be GREAT. Whenever I click on the paint filters they turn out really really strange.

[jonrayner]

Thanks that would be GREAT. Whenever I click on the paint filters they turn out really really strange.

I have found the same, I have used the 'artistic' filters and none of them look good, just seems like a gimic. It is probably more a case of I don't know how to use them!

[gjtoth]

I did this in Gimp. It's a plugin called, "Sketchy". I'm sure if I played with it, I could get it a little more sketchy-looking but, I don't think it's bad for a base point. See what you think:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2209/1766559611_b054153d88_b.jpg

[gjtoth]

This is also pretty interesting:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1008&thread=26197777

and this:

http://www.photoshopkillertips.com/

[LensBaby]

That sketch looks great! It was a plug in huh?

[gjtoth]

That sketch looks great! It was a plug in huh?

Yupperzzzzzzz... A lot of people look down their noses at Gimp but, it's FREE and it works great! The interface takes a little getting used to. But, the plug-ins are really nice.

[dkippen]

Lensbaby -

I have not forgotten about you - I didn't bring my book to work with me, then my hubby and I went out of town for the nite and we just got back. Putting up instructions from the Photoshop WOW book is one of my goals for tomorrow. I hope it's not too late. I apologize for not getting this done earlier.

Debbie

[dkippen]

Okay Lensbaby, as promised - Turn a Photo into a Painting. I hope this helps. With the book comes a CD of tool presets, brushes and other cool stuff. The complete book title is How to Wow: Photoshop for Photographer and is a great resource for photo touchup.


Prepare source image - remove distractions.
Adjust Color & Contrast - Choose Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation and adjust to your liking. To make sure you can see a lot of color in darkest are, choose Image>Adjustments>Shadow/Highlight, move Shadows Amount, then adjust color correction setting until image is very colorful.
Add extra white space around image. Choose Image>Canvas Size, turn on Relative checkbox, set Canvas Extension Color to White, enter 130 pixels for height and width. Add a paper layer, Choose Solid Color from Adjustment Layer at bottom of Layers palette; choose white, lower opacity to 85%.
Set up Pattern Stamp. Choose Pattern Stamp Tool in the toolbox. Choose a brush that simulates a water color brush. ( have a preset tool for this, I don’t know how this will work for you.)
Define Image as Pattern – turn off eyeball icon on white paper lay, click on layer that contains photo, choose Edit>Define Pattern. To make Pattern Stamp tool, use that patter as color source, click on down pointing arrow next to pattern setting in Options bar, choose patter you just defined, create paint layer by turning eyeball back on for white “paper” layer and with that layer active, click New Layer icon at bottom of Layers palette.
Begin painting. Never paint across two contrasting colors w/one stroke; never let two colors touch; fast painting will allow paper texture to show thought, slow painting will “flood” paper w/color. Leave little white spaces between some of your paint strokes. Make the paint layer active and use Pattern Stamp tool to paint the sky.
Work down the image, reducing brush size as you come across areas of fine detail.
Add density by typing Ctrl-J once or twice to create duplicate layers which triples density of the paint.
Apply Unsharp Mask Filter. Click on top layer and make a merged visible layer by holding Ctrl-Option/Alt, then type N and then E. Choose Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask, set Amount to 100, Radius to 1, Threshold to 0.


This is pretty much out of the book. Let me know if you have questions.

[anorien1]

Tell me of this gimp of which you speak?

A chance to learn new software.. COOL!

Joyce
(I make no apologies for my geekness!):D

[LensBaby]

Thanks Debbie. I can't wait to try it out.

[dkippen]

You're welcome - I hope it works well for you.

[gjtoth]

Tell me of this gimp of which you speak?

A chance to learn new software.. COOL!

Joyce
(I make no apologies for my geekness!):D

It's open source software (free). It comes in many flavors (Windows, Linux, etc). Has a TON of plugins (also free). Check it out at

http://www.gimp.org/

[LensBaby]

I think that sketch looks a lot better than the sketch on photoshop cs2! I really liked that one of your bird. It was nice.

[gjtoth]

I think that sketch looks a lot better than the sketch on photoshop cs2! I really liked that one of your bird. It was nice.

Thanks again, Susan. Gimp IS pretty cool. Give it a try. Don't forget to get the plugins, too.