Photographs that look like paintings can be very appealing. Over the years I have experimented with a few techniques including some of the fun software programs that mimic painting styles.
At the heart of converting a photograph into a "painting" is simplification.
Simplification is a process of blurring the detail in the photograph whilst retaining some of the sharp edges. The painterly finish can then be enhanced by adding textures and /or making changes to the colours and tones.
To illustrate this process here are two links to images that I have created in the past. The first is a Spanish Farm from 2011 and the second is Paphos Harbour at sunset from 2012.
There is no real objective criteria for selecting an image to convert into the painterly style. It is more of a feeling that it might work. For example, this is an image taken at Perranporth in Cornwall. The image has a natural soft definition due to the weather conditions. The appeal is the line of wet sand converging towards the cliffs in the background.
The foreground is actually quite distracting and although I like the shape of the clouds a better composition for these purposes is achieved with a top and bottom crop.
Using blur and adding texture subtly alters this image to give it a painterly finish. Whether this is an improvement depends upon individual taste.
This is a slightly brighter version:
Here is another example taken at Chapel Porth on the same day. Again the conversion is subtle with the original shown first:
This set is perhaps less subtle: the original image; the original cropped; the simplified and textured version; and a new composition that was deliberately overexposed to mute the contrast and colours before simplifying and adding texture:
The amount of simplification, altered colouration and added texture depends upon the subject matter. The aim is to not make the processing so obvious that it becomes the subject. Any changes should enhance the picture. Of course, it is not normal to present a choice of the original or the processed painterly version so it is accepted if the original is the preferred by some viewers (it is also recognised that viewing small digital versions is limited and that full sized or printed copies can look very different).
There is no real objective criteria for selecting an image to convert into the painterly style. It is more of a feeling that it might work. For example, this is an image taken at Perranporth in Cornwall. The image has a natural soft definition due to the weather conditions. The appeal is the line of wet sand converging towards the cliffs in the background.
The foreground is actually quite distracting and although I like the shape of the clouds a better composition for these purposes is achieved with a top and bottom crop.
Using blur and adding texture subtly alters this image to give it a painterly finish. Whether this is an improvement depends upon individual taste.
This is a slightly brighter version:
Here is another example taken at Chapel Porth on the same day. Again the conversion is subtle with the original shown first:
This set is perhaps less subtle: the original image; the original cropped; the simplified and textured version; and a new composition that was deliberately overexposed to mute the contrast and colours before simplifying and adding texture:
The amount of simplification, altered colouration and added texture depends upon the subject matter. The aim is to not make the processing so obvious that it becomes the subject. Any changes should enhance the picture. Of course, it is not normal to present a choice of the original or the processed painterly version so it is accepted if the original is the preferred by some viewers (it is also recognised that viewing small digital versions is limited and that full sized or printed copies can look very different).
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