Section 11.3. Converting Photos to Paintings | Digital Photography Expert Techniques

11.3. Converting Photos to Paintings

There are as many ways to turn a photograph into something that looks more like a painting as there are little round O's in a truckload of Cheerios. So I'm not going to cram a book of those techniques into this chapter. However, I will tell you that, like most everything else in this chapter, you should start with a layer that is a consolidation of all the other layers you've created up until now (Cmd/Ctrl-Opt/Alt-E, remember?). Since it's a fair likelihood that you'll want to somehow blend or merge your "painting" with your photo, it's also not a bad idea to make a copy of that merged layer.

Although I've just told you that there are more ways to make a painting from a photo than grains of sand in Death Valley that applies to the individual techniques. There are only two main methodical categories: natural media brushes and Photoshop-compatible plug-ins. Both of these categories are available from inside Photoshop and both are available in far more sophisticated versions from competitive or third-party vendors of both independent software and Photoshop plug-ins. Of course, you can also mix natural media brushes and filters, which may be the most efficient way to produce something that actually looks like a painting.

11.3.1. Using Plug-in Filters

Plug-in filters are the most accessible way to make a painting from a photograph. In fact, it's possible to do a fairly credible job by simply running any of a number of filters on a copy of that merged layer. Since the only way to find out which of these will work best for the image you have in mind is experimentation, there's no point in even going in to all the possibilities. Figure 11-15 shows you an image before and after filtering with the Photoshop Colored Pencil filter.

Figure 11-15. The figure on the right definitely looks more like a painting or drawing than a photograph, but would only momentarily fool most into thinking it wasn't some sort of digital trick.

The biggest problem with single built-in Photoshop filters is that they've been around for so long that their effects tend to look cliché and fake. One way to get partially around that is to combine filters using the Filter Gallery. In Photoshop CS2, the Filter Gallery opens every time you use a filter. Then you can combine the effects of multiple filters as though they were one. This process explains how to use a single filter and combine the effects in the Filter Gallery.

Open your image and make a merged layer of it.
Choose FilterFilter Gallery (if you choose any filter thats in the filter gallery, it will open in the Filter Gallery anyway, see Figure 11-16). If you have already used a filter since you last opened Photoshop, it will already be the one (or ones) loaded. If not, pick a filter from any of the menus by clicking the down arrow key for that menu. You'll see a preview thumbnail of the effect that each filter will create. As soon as you pick a filter, it will start to process the image. You'll see a progress bar moving at the very bottom of the image preview window.
Figure 11-16. The Filter Gallery.
In the far right column you can see the Filters menu and the adjustments sliders. Some filters also have a texture menu and sliders. Make your adjustments and wait to see the results in the preview window. You can switch from one magnification to another by using the Zoom menu at the bottom of the screen. I like to switch from Fit on Screen, where I can see the whole effect to 100 percent, where I can see how each stroke looks.
If you want to add another filter, simply click the New Filter icon at the bottom of the righthand column, then either choose another filter from the thumbnail menus or from the Filter menu at the top of the righthand column. The name of the new filter and an On/Off icon will appear in the gray window at the bottom of the column. Follow the same procedures for the new filter as in Step 3.

You can add as many filters as you like, as well as change the order in which they are processed, which changes the look of the end result. To change the processing order, simply drag the filter name in the window at the bottom of the righthand palette. You can see the result of combining three filters in Figure 11-17.

Figure 11-17. Two filters have been combined in the Filter Gallery to produce the effect on the right. At least it's a little less cliché.

11.3.1.1. Combine filters by erasing through layers

The results from combining filters will look more natural if you copy the merged layer two or three times, probably for the object of importance, less important background objects, and the background itself. Put the foreground object (subject) layer on top, less important but not too distant objects in the middle, and the layer for background objects at the bottom (this is not the Photoshop Background layer). Choose the Eraser tool and select the top layer, then erase or partially erase (lower the eraser opacity) everything but the subject. If you're in a hurry, you could make a feathered selection and then hit Backspace/Delete. Now select the middle layer and erase all of what you want to be the background objects. Finally, select each layer and use either a different filter or very different size and intensity settings for the same filter for each of the three layers. Figure 11-18 clearly shows that this is the superior method for semi-automatically creating something that looks like a painting.

Figure 11-18. The image on the right is the result of using Xaos Tool's natural media filters to paint each of three layers with a different stroke and size. The result bears more resemblance to techniques a real artist might use.

NOTE

You don't need to have a texture in a filter to make the "painting" look as though it were printed on canvas, watercolor, or sandstone. All of those textures are available in Photoshop's Lighting Effects filter, which you can add to the end result by copying the filtered image(s) to a new (merged?) layer.

11.3.2. Using Natural Media Brushes

Natural media brushes actually don't exist in the digital photography world; they are digital techniques that can do an amazingly good job of imitating the brushes and media used in traditional painting. In fact, they can be so good at it that many traditional painters and illustrators have switched over to digital so that they can offer their clients multiple interpretations of the same painting. A good many photographersparticularly portrait and wedding photographershave also found digital painting to be a highly profitable additional service.

You can do "natural media" painting in Photoshop or you can opt to do it quite a bit faster and more believably by using Corel Painter. Frankly, I find the "junior" version of Painter, Painter Essentials 3, quite adequate for my needs. This software is free with the Wacom Graphire tablet, which comes in a 4x5-inch version that costs only $10 more than the software.

11.3.2.1. Using Photoshop's natural media brushes

Unbeknownst to many photographers, you can choose brush shapes in Photoshop and other options that allow you to come pretty close to imitating natural media brushes. So if you wanted to create a painting from a photograph that looked something like it was painted in oils or watercolor, you can do it. Merge a copy of your layers so you can paint or clone the end result from the original onto a new layer. To do this, duplicate the image, choose the Brush tool, and then use the Brush Presets menu in the Options bar to load natural media brushes. I'm not very good at using Photoshop for this purpose, but here's how I usually go about it (getting good at it is mostly a matter of practice, practice, practice).

Open the image you want to paint, make a consolidated layer so you'll have the tonal values and details from all the layers and then duplicate the image. You're going to use the original image for picking up color, as though it were a traditional artist's color palette.
Select the Brush tool and go to the Brushes palette in the Options bar (the icon on the right end of the bar that looks sort of like a jukebox menu). Click it and a menu drops down. From the Brushes Palette menu, choose Natural Brushes and click OK when you're asked if you want to replace the current brushes.
Go to the Brush Presets and make sure you have Shape Dynamics checked (unless you don't have a pressure-sensitive padin which case you should probably forget trying to imitate natural media except in filters such as Xaos tools or in Painter by doing automatic cloning).
Check any of the other Brush Tip shape boxes and adjustments to give you the effect you want.
Go to the original image and click the color you want to start painting in.
Go to the target image and create a new, blank layer. You're going to use the photo below the blank layer to "trace over" with your brush.
As you paint, keep picking up color from the original image. Press Opt/Alt and place the cursor on the color you want to make the foreground color. Then paint all the strokes for all the areas you want in that color.
When you have the basic painting painted, temporarily lower the opacity of the painting layer to 50 percent so you can see the details from the original photo. If you see small details that you'd like to add to the painting, make your brush smaller, pick up the right colors from the original, and paint in the small details.
When you're done, return the painting layer to 100 percent opacity. Then copy and paste it into the original image. You then have both versions of the image in the same file.

11.3.2.2. Using Corel Painter or Painter Essentials

Corel's Painter and its "junior" Painter Essentials are the de facto standards in software that imitates the tools, brushes, and media used by traditional 2D artists of all stripes. If you're familiar with these programs, you already know what I'm talking about and how to use it. If you've never explored this area, you probably should. There will always be times when one of your photographs could be the idea basis for some sort of non-objective illustration.

What I'd recommend for starters is Corel Painter Essentials (see Figure 11-19). If you own a Wacom Graphire pressure-sensitive pen and pad, you already have this program. If you don't, the pad will make it much easier to do a score of things that don't have anything to do with painting. The combination of the two will give you a good head start on converting your photos to something that really does look like a painting. From there, with some practice, you can take it to much higher levels. When you get pretty good at it, you're ready to tackle the complexity of Painter a bit further:

Figure 11-19. The Painter Essentials interface.

Choose the Brush tool from the Toolbox.
In the Options Bar, from the Stamp menu, choose Cloners.
From the Cloners menu, choose any brush style.
Choose CanvasTracing Paper. The image will appear to fade.
Start painting and stop when you like what you get, then save the file.

You can change the brush style and other characteristics at any time. I used a large, impressionist brush to make the background less detailed. I then used a Camel's Hair brush to paint the face. If the large brush mushed things up too much, I just painted over it with a smaller brush to get more detail. You can also use a Restore brush to gradually restore detail to the finished photo, in case there are important details such as eyes or a diamond ring. Figure 11-20 shows the original and the finished portrait of Kolle.

Figure 11-20. A portrait of a famous model before and after turning it into a "photopainting."