The term 'photopainting' is I think pretty widely accepted,
though not so much as to merit any positive search results
if you use Google's 'define' command in the search box. So
let me offer a definition: A photopainting is a digital image
which has been created using a photograph as its initial
data, and whose final appearance echoes those of real world
paintings. A photopainting is not to be confused with a digital
painting such as those that
are possible using digital media
that mimic real world media in software such as Corel's Painter.
That said, Painter can most certainly be used to create a photopainting.
Portrait of the Young Man as an Artist
This is an old black and white photograph
that survived from the 1960s. It was a self-portrait
that I took with my Lubitel II, a cheap little Russian
twin lens reflex. I selected each separate colour section
using the marqee tool set, created a separate layer for
each selection, and then 'hand coloured' each using the
colour balance function. That way the grayscale data
provided the light and shadow. The 'painting' in front
of the old cast iron mantlepiece is also a self-portait
at the age of 13 which was when I got the camera, as
a birthday present. It is pasted in over the acrylic
painting that stood there.
Oriental Lillies
This image began as a photograph
of a vase of oriental lillies, using available light,
shot with my Olympus C5050. There was actually quite
a bit of noise in the resulting photograph. Even so,
by cropping in close, and using a range of Photoshop
filters, the result is quite pleasing - the contrasts
between the whites of the lillies and vase and the green
and blacks of the background tiles of the fireplace.
Tea at Birling Gap
I took this photograph at Birling
Gap in East Sussex. It was a very hot day and the couple
that you see in the foreground seemed to be from an earlier
age. She in her yellow sundress and he in his shirt, slack,
hush puppies, and wide-brimmed sun hat. I imagine they
were drinking tea, not coffee. I removed some other figures
from the foreground before applying a number of filters,
the most important of which was Photoshop's dry brush.
Brighton Station Concourse
This
photopainting began life as a candid shot at Brighton
station where I was surprised to see the concourse
ticket seller putting his machine on the floor instead
of hanging it from a shoulder by its strap. I was pleased
with the group of figures I'd captured and thought they
would make a good photopainting. I started with a light
background wash using a skin tone. Then I laid a hardlight-filtered
copy of the photo on top. I then laid a overlay-filtered
copy on top to give the colours more depth. Finally I laid
a sketch-filter copy on top to complete the effect. I erased
some of the sketch pivels here where they got in the way.
One More Cup of Coffee
I took a photograph of a group of students in the cafe
of the railway station in Bath. They were waiting for a
train, as I was, and passing the time. I took the shot
with a bright sunlight window behind, and so I cleaned
everything out of the window that was blown (leaving a
step ladder which was in the street) and cropped the image
to get the best composition I could. I then experimented
until I got a sketch effect that satisfied me.
