This week I decided to get out from behind the lens, and spend some time working with images in my “to get to later” file. I have a couple of plug-ins that mimic painter effects, so I thought I would get to know one of them a bit better, Dynamic Auto Painter.
This is a great $50 plug-in. I have literally spent hours watching it do its thing. It is different in that you pick the style of the art or artist, and then it lays down the paint strokes using that technique. It builds the painting up from a blank canvas using thousands of strokes.
A few things I learned:
- It’s easier to match a known subject to it’s painter. A photo of sunflowers to Van Gough; a photo of lilly pads to Monet. I have a lot to discover in terms of which painting techniques go with certain subjects – but this is a great way to get started.
- I haven’t found a technique for macro or close-up’s yet. I am not sure if this is because many of the painters in their catalog did large scenes, or whether I need to do more sleuthing.
- I liked using it with abstracts, but the abstracts need to be complex in shape and color. I tried with some more stark abstracts such as a blades of grass against a yellow background but couldn’t get anything I liked. I’ll keep working at it, or perhaps turn to my other painting software.
Here is a before and after so you can get a sense of how much you can transform an image:
Here are some more images using different types of styles:
Injury index: Ok – I know I’m a bit clumsy, but it would be really tough for me to get injured while sitting at my PC. Although my neck is tight from all of the processing, but I don’t think I can count that in good conscious. So the running tally is 7 weeks injury free, 6 weeks with injuries.
pamphotography 