Photographic painting

Lots of people use Adobe "Photoshop". Then life is much easier (!!). It must have the most advanced facilities for all photo-manipulations. However, even someone like me, does not want to spend so much money as well as a owner of a humble old lap-top which can not be burdened with this heavy soft...but still, a good job can be done with free and modestly priced softs.

I use ----

Picasa (free download soft) : http://picasa.google.com

Picnik (free photo treatment site, premium account -$2.08/month --- allows to access more functions): http://www.picnik.com/app#/home/welcome

PhotoPlus X2 : I use this occasionally... this version is rather out-of-date now, I think, and apparently this is the equivalent to "Photoshop element" (this version around $30 now, see below Amazon info.)

At this moment, my favourite is Picnik (with premium account). This site has many facilities for manipulating images, it is most comprehensive and it works fairly quickly to achieve results. A drawback is, that it is not so powerful, and images over 2000 x something, often course "hiccups", thus I reduced the images to size 2000 x under 2000, before I start to go to the "create" section.

Picasa is a much simpler and straightforward system, thus very quick and very powerful. 5000 x something images are treated easily. Basic functions --- "sharpen", "faded colour", "tint", "soft focus" --- are all available in this soft. "Layer" is described as "Collage" > "Multiple Exposure" but they come only "50:50" (for layering two images).

Photoplus X2 has a function for painting , so if I want to add colour(s) I drop images into this soft. Otherwise...not so much use, actually...But fun.

As an example, the image of Bruges, above, was made with Picasa and PhotoPlusX2.
--- First with Picasa, I sharpened the image and brought up the contrast and reduced saturation to make it to "half black and white". Next I "exported" image to "my picture file" to "fix" the treatments. Then I dropped it into PhotoplsX2, added extra layers for each painted colour, adjusted transparency % of each layer of colour and exported to "my picture file" to "fix" them.

There may be some hits and misses, but with digital images, they can be corrected any time.

Thus, what are the most significant treatments to make a photograph like a painting???

"Texture" layer - This is the easiest thing to do first of all. Scratched/cracked surface, stones, walls, canvas fabric, rusted paint.... all of these can be really nice textures... so if you see something like old dusty surfaces, it's worth capturing them!! Use your imagination!!





With these soft mentioned above, add texture image(s) as layer(s) :

For Picnik, click open "photo basket" left below, and upload texture image(s) which you want to layer on the original image. Once the texture image has uploaded, just drag and drop onto the original image, then adjust the size, fade, effect etc...

For Picasa, choose the original image and the texture image(s) with "Ctrl + click". Then click "collage" in bottom row right. At this moment you will see them as "picture pile". Now click "picture pile" icon in the left column, it will draw down 5 choices of collages. Choose "multi-exposure" in the bottom row. Then images will be layered promptly. If you are happy with the image, click "create collage".
Because Picasa's layer system comes just 50:50 on each images, the resulting image often looks rather fade-away. If you like it, it's O.K., but you may need to use "I'm feeling lucky" ( means... "auto-fix" in "basic fixes" on left side column) to bring out the original image stronger, or make it darker/lighter under "Tuning" tab.

For Photoplus X2, drop the original image on to the screen first, and simply drop again the texture image(s) on top of it. In photoshopX2, each layer can not be resized separately on the screen (or I may just not know how-to do it !!??), so you need to adjust image sizes roughly the same in advance. But, here, you can adjust the transparency of the layered image with "Opacity" in the right side column.

These are basics for the layering texture image...

With the addition of layers, manipulations below enhance "old" feeling ----

Colour saturation : Simply "fade colour away" with saturation settings ---
For Picasa under the "effect" tub,
For Picnik, under "edit" tub > "colours" ( Or more subtle way...under "create" tub > "effect" > "sepia" and adjust "fade" ).
For PhotoplusX2, "Quick fix studio" on the top bar > "colour" > "saturation"
In many cases, you may want to enhance the contrast in order to supplement faded colours.

These are example of this treatment----





Then add texture...
Also pale yellow "tint" can add for aged feeling.
If you use Picnik with premium account, go "Create" > "Cross Process", this effect gives instant faded colour. These processes may be combined one with the other to see which combination works well for your image... Simply... have fun!!