Painted Canvas


Simulating painted canvas is tricky on a number of fronts; you need to display a convincing texture, show just enough depth to convey the feeling of canvas and paint, and still render a realistic result. You walk a fine line to retain the critical photographic aspects of the image, and still portray a graphic and painterly look and feel.

Realistically, you should try to simulate more of a graphic look than a true painterly result. Other programs can help you achieve faux oil-paint textures better than Photoshop can. What I was looking for here was a convincing texture and interpretive color similar to what you might find in a painting. In this result, the color is more dramatic and expressive, and the texture does a nice job of removing the image from the realm of the photographic.

In the end, I liked the way the color worked in the image. Specifically, the golden-orange hues in the shadows were reminiscent of romantic illustrations of the early twentieth century (think Maxfield Parrish) and images from the Arts and Crafts movement. The result had a golden, luminous glow, as well as a painterly texture and overall graphic feel.

Orcia Tree
Nikon D2H
1/250 sec, f/8
Focal length 105mm

About the Original Image

I never got tired of shooting these patches of open hillside, anchored by a lone tree in the center. This one is in the Orcia valley in southern Tuscany. The biggest challenge in creating a pleasing effect was in dealing with the large areas of foliage that tended to flatten out and loose their detail. By pushing the subtle ochre accents into the shadows, I hoped to add a bit of drama to these flat areas.

Building the Effect

In an attempt to simulate the look of woven canvas, I started by dragging the Background layer to the Create New Layer icon in the Layers palette to create a duplicate. I repeated this process a second time for a total of three duplicate layers.

Create a Woven Texture

I clicked the foreground color swatch and set the RGB color values to R172, G199, B165. Then I clicked the background color swatch and set the RGB color values to R249, G227, B178. I highlighted the top layer and chose Filter, Render, Fibers to launch the Fibers dialog box. I set the Variance value to 16 and the Strength value to 4 and clicked OK to apply the effect. I highlighted the second duplicate layer and chose Image, Rotate Canvas, 90° CCW to turn the entire image on its side. I applied the Fibers filter a second time using the same settings, which applied the effect horizontally instead of vertically. I then selected Image, Rotate Canvas, 90° CW to return the image to its proper orientation.

I double-clicked the name of the top layer and renamed it Vert Fibers; I renamed the second layer Horiz Fibers. To blend the two layers, I highlighted Vert Layers and selected Multiply from the blending mode, creating a woven textile pattern (see Figure ).

A woven textile pattern.

Adding Depth to Texture

To give the pattern the dimensional texture of woven canvas, I chose Select, All, to select the entire image. Then I chose Edit, Copy Merged to copy the combined layers; I pasted the merged layers into a single layer by choosing Edit, Paste. To select only the teal color, I chose Select, Color Range. In the dialog box that appeared, I selected the darker area of the teal color, set the Fuzziness slider to 182, and clicked OK to make the selection. After copying the selection, I chose Edit, Paste to paste the teal fiber pattern into its own layer. To add depth to the teal fiber layer, I selected Bevel & Emboss from the Add Layer Style pop-up menu, chose Inner Bevel from the Style pop-up menu, Smooth from the Technique pop-up, and set the Depth slider to 191%. I left all the other settings at their defaults. Finally, I turned off the visibility in the new pasted teal fiber layer and set the layer's Opacity slider at 29% to blend and combine the layers (see Figure ).

Emphasize the teal "canvas" fibers

Displacing the Original Photo

I wanted to apply a Displace filter to the photo to warp it slightly, making it conform to the canvas texture. Displace always needs an external file to base its warp effect on, and it applies its warp offset based on the tonal values of the external file. Black & White pixels displace the image more, while gray pixels create less of a warp effect. Since I wanted the displacement warp to conform to the canvas texture, I decided to use the canvas texture I had just created as the external file.

I selected the entire canvas image and chose Edit, Copy Merged to copy the beveled and multiplied result. I pasted this into a new layer and then selected Duplicate Layer from the Layers palette menu. In the resulting dialog box, I selected New from the Document pull-down menu and clicked OK to copy the merged layer as a new image file. Finally, I closed the new file, saved it as a .psd, and named it Canvas Displace.

To apply the displacement to the original photo, I dragged the Background layer (the original photo, not the canvas texture) to the Create New Layer icon to copy it. I positioned the copy at the top of the layer stack. I selected Filter, Distort, Displace filter, and selected the Canvas Displace.psd file from the dialog box that appeared. I then set both of the Vertical Scale values to 10, and clicked OK without modifying any of the other controls. I double-clicked the title of this new layer to highlight it and renamed it Displace.

To blend the displaced layer with the texture layers, I set the Displace layer blending mode to Difference and set Opacity to 67% (see Figure ).

Use fiber texture to displace photo.

I duplicated the Background image layer once again and dragged it to the top of the layer stack. To create a linear graphic effect and flatten the shadows, I selected Filter, Stylize, Find Edges (this command applies the effect without any dialog box intervention). I set the blending mode of the resultant filtered layer to Overlay and its Opacity to 74%.

At this point, the blending mode for the Vert Fibers layer was set to Multiply to allow the two fiber layers to overlap, but the blending mode for the Horiz Fibers layer was still set to Normal, obscuring the Background image photo. I set the blending mode for the Horiz Fibers layer to Multiply to add back the green foliage color and integrate the original photo into the composite (see Figure ).

Blend original photo into composite.

Revitalizing the Color

The color was looking good, but things still felt kind of dull and flat. To add additional contrast and deepen the shadows, I selected Curves from the Adjustment Layer pull-down menu in the Layers palette. In the Curves dialog box, I set three curve pointsInput: 47, Output: 44; Input: 117, Output: 145; and Input: 197, Output: 225.

I decided to add additional texture using some directional lighting effects. I chose Select, All to select the entire image. Then I chose Edit, Copy Merged and Edit, Paste to paste a copy of the combined layers into a single layer. I selected Filter, Render, Lighting Effects to launch the Lighting Effects dialog box. I set the controls as follows: Light Type Omni, Intensity 35, Focus 69, Gloss -87, Material -6, Exposure 16, Ambiance 20, Texture Channel Blue, Check White is High, Height Slider 86. I dragged the light in the thumbnail preview to the left of the tree and clicked OK to apply the filter.

I liked the result of this filter except for the sky, which felt too textural and unnatural. I selected the Magic Wand tool from the toolbox and set the Tolerance in the Options bar to 22. I clicked once in the sky to select the area, and Option-clicked (Alt-clicked in Windows) the Add Layer Mask icon in the Layers palette to hide the selected sky area with a mask, allowing the color from the lower layer to show through (see Figure ).

Brighten image with Lighting Effects.

For the last step, I wanted to eliminate some of the white highlight noise in the tree areas. I duplicated the Background layer one last time and dragged it to the top of the layer stack. I set the blending mode for this duplicated layer to Pin Light to tone down some of the bright spots and complete the effect (see Figure ).

The final painted canvas.




The Art of Photoshop for Digital Photographers
The Art of Photoshop for Digital Photographers
ISBN: 0672327139
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 141

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