Water color effect

[AF]

I'm interested in converting photos into watercolors. Not really
satisfied with PP results. Often too hard to see the original photo. The
plug-ins I've used work great on small photos but don't do much to the
larger files I'm using. Is there a plug-in or technique that works for
someone?

[Ray]

Have you tried Virtual Painter? I dont't know if it will work with
PhotoPaint, but for Photoshop / Elements, it works well. It's offered on
Jasc website (Paint Shop Pro).

Ray

[AF]

Thanks, I'll take a look.

[Jeff Goldfarb]

I've found that the "Watercolour" effect is a lot more manageable in Corel
PTPNT 9 if the image is resampled up in size before applying it. Ditto for
distortion tools like "Meshwarp". Have you explored the full range of .8bf
filters yet ? Many of them allow colour changes and effects which are useful
for altering the rendering of the image _after_ you have applied the
Artstrokes/Watercolour brushstrokes. I've found that this particular effect
only works well if the "Dab size" is kept to the absolute minimum; any
increase in it renders the image unrecognizeable even with a larger
(2000x1500 pxl) image. It would be nice to be able to calibrate this effect
downward but I suppose that's too much to hope for.
I come across this problem quite often. One of the most useful filters I've
found is Axion "Glow&Sparkle.8bf". The effects possible with this filter are
amazing, but there's very little relationship between the view in the
"Preview" window and the effect applied to the image. Like PTPNT's
"Watercolour", it's on a hair trigger and needs lots of trial and error
experimentation before the effect is satisfactory. Of course if anyone knows
how to adjust/calibrate these sort of filters/effects downward I'd be
delighted to hear about it (!).

Best,
Jeff.
"AF" <al_carfar...@infowest.com> wrote in message
news:3f3863cc$1_3@cnews...

[Paul]

You might like to try this:
1) With your image open, alter the Input Value Clipping in the level
equalisation dialogue - bring the sliders together a bit depending on the
image, of course.
2) Create an object from the image and duplicate it twice.
3) With the bottom most object selected go to 'Effects>Contour>Trace
Contour' to give it some edges. Again the amount will depend on the image.
4) Go to the middle object and set it's blending mode to 'Hard Light'
5) Go to the top most object and reduce it's opacity, say to about 65%,
depending on the image of course, and then apply a Gaussian blur, to taste
:o)
6) If you like, then apply a texture, the 'bread' one looks a bit like
watercolour paper.
Good fun, and it keeps you in control of the look of the thing.

Cheers,

Paul

"AF" <al_carfar...@infowest.com> wrote in message

news:3f340ab6$1_2@cnews...

[Ilya Razmanov]

"AF" <al_carfar...@infowest.com> wrote in message
news:3f340ab6$1_2@cnews...
>

You may give a try to:

http://photoshop.msk.ru/as/simplifier.html

it's free.

Ilyich.
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Ilya Razmanov (a.k.a. Ilyich the Toad)
http://photoshop.msk.ru/ - Photoshop plug-in filters
- Ah, an illegitimate Corley operation!
- I prefer to think of it as a RENEGADE Corley operation. - Full Throttle
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