Marty, what program do you use to give the photos the look of being paintings? The photos are beautiful to start with but the effect of being a painting is just outstanding.

Hi Nancy, i often do it with a pic that isn't quite right. like a lil washed out or something. not always tho. sometimes i start playing around with totally normal pics....

I use the Topaz software. http://www.topazlabs.com/ photoshop plugins...

my son in law Jacob does high end advertising work, and a spectacular photographer recommended it to him and i have been playing with it ever since. I have the whole set. topaz adjust and topaz simplify i use a LOT. topaz detail quite a bit. clean and denoise have their own special times. with crappy pixelated stuff.

but i often begin with topaz adjust's "adjust exposure"
then peek at a "photo pop"
then start playing. if the detail is missing, i'll use topaz detail.

topaz simplify is awesome.
http://AmbergrisCaye.com/photogallery/100318.html
http://AmbergrisCaye.com/photogallery/100319.html

simplify has a few painting presets, but i usually need to tweak those a bit to get the right sized "brushstroke look" sorta. you can see the detail slip away and come back as you play with the sliders.

in topaz adjust there is a "spicify" preset that can really be something
used it here:
http://ambergriscaye.com/photogallery/100316.html
http://AmbergrisCaye.com/photogallery/100315.html
top picture here http://AmbergrisCaye.com/photogallery/100304.html

but its USUALLY too much. takes a certain pic to handle that much spice i guess! luckily in photoshop you can re-apply a percentage of the filter after you undo one. so you can see what it does, undo, then give it whatever% of the whole dose.

its a lot of fun. also good for pics say that you only have small, and need a bigger one. blow it up, it gets crappy, but then run denoise to clean it up a bit then run simplify and it really takes the crap away and gives you a nice slightly posterized picture

like this:
http://AmbergrisCaye.com/photogallery/100208.html

lotsa fun tho. makes for some cool paintings on the wall for clients that have a nice photo of their place. turn it into a painting and put a nice one on the wall...

Wow!now this is some good info. thanks

photoshop play

pwetty boidie

Wow Marty! Thanks for all that wonderful info. I always checkout the before and after versions and man-o-man I'd be happy with the before ones.

I am trying to teach myself how to use my 40D Canon but I'm a slow learner. LOL
You'd think that in Dallas there would be severa camera clubs but the only thing I can find is a Meet-up group. Really nice folks but most of the meetings are so far away.

Thanks again.

Good info Marty, thanks.

I just posted some nice pictures of Ambergris on Associated Content as a slideshow. You can see it here:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/slideshow/57874/images_of_ambergris_caye_belize.html?cat=16

Enjoy!
Kim O