That "watercolor"look...

Jim Stanley

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Jan 10, 1998, 3:00:00 AM1/10/98

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Hello there.
Can anyone tell me how to make photographs look as if they were watercolor
or oil paintings? I've seen this a few times, most recently on page 12 of
the Jan 98 Shutterbug.

I'd really like to be able to do this kind of work--any help would be
appreciated.

Planxan

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Jan 10, 1998, 3:00:00 AM1/10/98

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Most likely these days it's a Photoshop filter such as Xaos Paint Alchemy.

Greg Easter

---------
Photo website at http://www.xantro.com

John or Jenn

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Jan 10, 1998, 3:00:00 AM1/10/98

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In article <01bd1ddb$e163cf60$993479cf@jnstan> Jim Stanley,

jns...@innernet.net writes:
>Can anyone tell me how to make photographs look as if they were watercolor
>or oil paintings? I've seen this a few times, most recently on page 12 of
>the Jan 98 Shutterbug.

Some labs do these using a special watercolor paper...I havenıt seen
the new SB, so I donıt know if itıs the same thing youıre looking at,
but these look very nice.

eric

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Jan 11, 1998, 3:00:00 AM1/11/98

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the only decent watercolor program is Paint Shop Pro......it is very difficult
and you need a pad with a pencil type mouse. i am experimenting with this now,
it is really becoming a huge thing in the portrait market, photoshop does not
let you actually do the paint strokes like paint does, in paint you use your
mouse like a paint brush, whereas in photoshop it just applies a filter to the
image, two very different looks........

eric
http://www.dallas.net/erics

kingsnake

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Jan 12, 1998, 3:00:00 AM1/12/98

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Eric,

(for once)

I agree. PSP has several features that Photoshop lacks.
However, they tend to share their plug-in filters so well,
why not use both (which is what I do) .
Photoshop, OTOH, has a lot of professional tweaks not found in PSP.

If you're serious about digital image processing/manipulation, one or
the other simply won't do ... you need both, at least. You should also
throw in Corel-Draw or Photo-Paint ... :-)

Yay, Eric!

--

-John S. Bond <kingsnake> WA6FRN/6
kingsnake photography; a division of Gyro Gearloose Productions
http://www.humboldt1.com/~gyrgrls/
ICQ uin:4604100

Skeets

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Jan 12, 1998, 3:00:00 AM1/12/98

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Using Photoshop is all well and good, but photographer Renald Richer
told me this:

1) Use a slow shutter speed of about 1/4 second and handhold the camera

2) Depress the shutter release button and a fraction of a second after
the shutter opens move the camera in a panning motion.

3) This technique blurs the image, creates multiple impressions,
sometimes makes the image look like a watercolour painting due to the
resulting translucence and you also get a general softening of the
image.

4) Take several exposures of the same subject/composition.

5) Then take more exposures while varying the exposure slightly up and
down. Each exposure will be different due to different exposure and
natural variation in your body motion while panning.

6) Invariably one exposure will stand out as the best, a few may be
similar.

7) Be prepared to burn a lot of film

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(o o) THE FIRMAMENT
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HTTP://WWW.THEFIRMAMENT.COM

kingsnake

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Jan 13, 1998, 3:00:00 AM1/13/98

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YES!!!!

Panning is a good technique.

I used it on one of the pics on my website ; "boy with birds in
motion"
coolimages|candids|children|page1

Except I used 1/30 sec. and panned quickly, following the boy's pace.

Please critique.

TIA.

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