Amersham Beyond Group - 5th Dec. 2019

Meeting Notes on Creative Photography and Photo-Art
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spb
Posts: 146
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2008 7:04 pm

Amersham Beyond Group - 5th Dec. 2019

Post by spb » Sat Dec 07, 2019 5:09 pm

MONTHLY CHALLENGES

#8 STILL LIFE

About 60 excellent images were submitted for this challenge. Most members opted for an entirely in-camera approach but a pleasing number went off-piste with their choice of subject and treatment. No major technical traumas this month but lighting was, not surprisingly, an issue for many. LED torches can be a cheap and versatile light source although colour balance needs to be watched, especially if there is mixed lighting.

An extreme approach to Still Life is taken by an Australian photographer Kevin Best whose work can be seen here.

FOCUS STACKING
Several members had depth of field issues with recent challenges. Closing the aperture as much as possible will certainly help, but this requires more light (or longer exposure times) and the smallest apertures can cause softness with digital cameras caused by optical diffraction. Generally I would avoid the smallest couple of aperture settings if possible.

Another approach to the problem is focus stacking/bracketing where multiple shots are combined. Depending upon your camera, it may be possible to do this automatically in the camera (focus stacking), or partly in the camera and partly in Photoshop (focus bracketing). I only have focus bracketing in my Olympus OM10 so the camera took the series of images automatically but then I had to use Photoshop to blend them. Many cameras offer no support for focus stacking or bracketing at all, in which case you have to take the series of images individually in manual mode with the focus point adjusted by hand between each shot. Nevertheless, it’s still perfectly possible.

I combined about 8 images to get close up shots of a scale model and I found the process quite straightforward. The first video in this article describes the process quite well.

The next Challenge will be;

#9 PHOTO PAINTING

Guidelines;
Don’t panic! This doesn’t require any actual painting skills, but rather using specific filters or dedicated software to convert an image into a simulated painting or drawing. This month an existing image can be used from your archives - no need for a new one. The effect may be used on the entire image or just part of it such as a background or sky.

Photo filters have got a bad reputation for formulaic or algorithmic results. We are specifically NOT looking for that effect – but a more natural painted or drawn appearance. The acid test is whether the public would believe that you have hitherto unrealised artistic skills!

Members may know of other solutions but I have selected and rated a handful of suitable photo painting tools;

Basic Photo Painting;
- Photoshop/Elements Dry Brush filter; not very realistic but the best of a poor bunch
- Photoshop/Elements Watercolor filter; ditto
- Photoshop Creative Cloud (not Elements) Oil Painting filter; even less realistic but I’ll make an exception because it can produce fascinating results especially on vegetation and fur.

Better Photo Painting;
- Fotosketcher (Win £0); excellent freeware with a wide range of quite realistic painted effects *RECOMMENDED* **UPDATE** - there are reports that the Mac version has not worked for a couple of years.
- Topaz Impression (Win/Mac $99 via Studio 2); some excellent painting styles. Great if you already have the suite but not worth $99 alone. **UPDATE** - download the original plug-in version if possible - it has over 100 presets. The new Studio version has just a miserly eight. I queried this with Topaz and it is on their 'to do' list.
- Waterlogue (Mac £3.29, iOS £4.99); a one-trick pony but the watercolour effect is remarkable. **UPDATE** Whilst the iOS and Mac versions are reportedly excellent, the Windows port is at best quirky and at worst crashy.

Best Photo Painting;
- Dynamic Auto Painter 6 Home Edition (Win/Mac £40 or less); the most comprehensive photo painting software available but only for digital adventurers *RECOMMENDED*
- Corel Painter Essentials 7 (Win/Mac £35 or less); for serious digital artists only. The painted photo is only the starting point for this digital arts powerhouse.

Free trials are available for all of the above but some may be short term eg Waterlogue is 24 hours only, I think.

Photo Painting Tips;
- the painting process replaces the original image so dodgy photoshopping is entirely hidden!
- resolution affects the result. Start with a downsized image (eg 2000px longest side) for speed and try the original size if you get a promising result
- simple images can work best and crops of small areas of an image can be upsized for great effect when painted
- where the software allows, the painting process can sometimes be stopped early for a looser effect.

BACK OF BEYOND - DIARIES

PRINTING TIPS
I picked up one or two useful tips at a Permajet Printing With Confidence course recently;
- images on matte papers require more sharpening than gloss papers due to the absorption of the ink into the paper
- prints can benefit from a final bit of punch from a HIRALOAM layer ie an unsharp mask with High Radius (eg 20) And Low Amount (eg 20) which is the opposite of normal usage
- Canon printers have a 300ppi native resolution. Epson printers have a 360ppi native resolution. However values above 200ppi are not generally visible to the naked eye!

PHOTOSHOP UPDATES
I discovered that my version of Photoshop CC had been updated some time previously but I was still using the old one. This was because the new version did not overwrite the old one and the desktop shortcut was not updated. Ditto for the ‘E’ shortcut in Faststone. It’s worth checking.

CMOS BATTERY
It’s also worth checking the date and time on your computer. If it’s wrong it would be prudent to change the CMOS back-up battery on the motherboard. I have had serious problems with two of our three computers this year caused by these batteries. Both were about 4 years old. A laptop refused to start and my desktop became totally corrupted (partially due to RAID arrays) and has had to be completely wiped and re-built from Windows upwards. They are only a couple of quid. Better safe than sorry….. and of course check that your backups are bullet proof.

Cheers, Steve
Last edited by spb on Fri Jan 03, 2020 9:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

spb
Posts: 146
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2008 7:04 pm

Re: Amersham Beyond Group - 5th Dec. 2019

Post by spb » Wed Dec 25, 2019 1:06 pm

MORE PHOTO PAINTING APPS

I have received a good report of the Painnt Pro Art app (Win/Mac £0 or subscription). The free version adds a watermark to the image but this could be edited if you don't want to pay a subscription.

On a smartphone Prisma is a popular and dramatic filter which does not try to mimic traditionally media.

Cheers, Steve.

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