alien skin; bokeh

Oil Painting Effect on a Photograph

Oil Painting Effect on a Photograph

Kevin

Toying around with some software filters, I arrived at a painterly effect that I really love … in just 5 minutes.  I’m not trying to put painters out of business – just having fun.

I started with an image from Lexington Massachusetts this past Patriots Day weekend.  My first experiment did not yield a compelling result.  Tried a second image, applied different filters, and shown here are all the phases of transformation.

Unmodified image
Unmodified image

The first filter is Bokeh 2 by Alien Skin.  (This is demonstrated in my previous post: Softening a Photo with Bokeh 2)

Processed with Bokeh 2, by Alien Skin
Processed with Bokeh 2, by Alien Skin

The second step is done with Topaz Adjust. Adjust is one of my favorite tricks for adding a bit of “pop” to an image that seems a bit dull, however, here I used a preset called “Low key”, which I have never found any use for until today.

Processed with Bokeh, then Topaz Adjust, preset = Low Key
Processed with Bokeh, then Topaz Adjust, preset = Low Key

The last step is an painterly effect using Snap Art by Alien Skin.

Click on the image to see the larger view!

Processed with Bokeh and Adjust, then Snap Art
Processed with Bokeh and Adjust, then Snap Art

That was rather easy. Honestly, such experimental transformations are usually more difficult and end up with a result I don’t love … so, delete. I really like this one.

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

Softening a Photo with Bokeh 2 (by AlienSkin)

Softening a Photo with Bokeh 2 (by AlienSkin)

Kevin

Last winter, I did a bit of backyard bird photography. Attached here is one of those images, where the bird looks quite good, but the background is distracting. As this was shot from my kitchen window, there was nothing I could do about the background (except maybe hang an artificial backdrop in the background trees

original image - shot with a MFT 45-200 zoom at f/8
original image – shot with a MFT 45-200 zoom at f/8

Perhaps the background would be less distracting if the depth of focus was more shallow.  A wider aperture might do the trick. This image was shot at f/8.  The widest aperture on the lens is f/5.6.

Enter … a software filter called Bokeh2, by Alien Skin.  The term ‘bokeh’ refers to the characteristics of an out-of-focus lens.  Some lenses have a more visually appealing bokeh than others.  The Bokeh 2 software simulates the bokeh effect and includes several presets that emulate specific lenses.  So here is an edited version of the image, using Bokeh 2 to simulate an aperature of f/2.8 to soften the background and make it a bit less distracting.

Background softened using Bokeh 2
Background softened using Bokeh 2

Although this does not entirely remedy the distracting background, it does reduce the distraction by softening it.  You might achieve a similar effect with a basic Gaussian Blur filter, but Bokeh 2 aims to simulate characteristics of real lenses.  This would be very significant if the background here had specular highlights, as real optical bokeh has a different effect than simple blur.