Turning a Boring Photo into a Digital Masterpiece
We all have photos in our collections that are kind of nice but maybe a little dull and underwhelming. But there is something you can do to make these photos live again. With the latest software and apps, you can turn those boring pics into digital masterpieces.
So, here’s a photo of Camp Cove Jetty near South Head in Sydney, Australia:
It’s a nice photo, though maybe the colours are a bit dull and the shadows a bit too deep. But that can be fixed in Photoshop or any good photo editor. This is what I came up with:
OK. So that’s definitely a bit better; the colours are brighter and the shadows less deep. But now I’m going to try some jiggery-pokery to turn this photo into a digital painting using an app.
There are heaps of apps and programs out there that can turn photos into digital drawings or paintings. The one I’m using today is called BeCasso, but you should feel to use whatever app or program works best for you. Try a few out and play with them to see what you like best.
Anyway, here’s what I ended up with after using BeCasso. I chose an oil painting effect that I feel really brings out the colours of the original photo:
But I felt the default preset was a little soft, so I reduced the softness to make the image clearer:
That’s looking pretty good. But I’m not finished. I like to open the digital painting in Photoshop to give it a few more tweaks and sharpen the image a little bit more. Here’s the final result:
It’s a subtle difference, but I think those final tweaks make all the difference. And it certainly looks way better than the original photo.
I’m not sure what it is about turning a photo into a digital painting that changes it for the better. I think it’s because it gives the image a kind of hyper-real quality. It might not be to everyone’s taste, but I like the end result. So if you have any uninspiring photos in your digital archives, why not try giving them a new lease of life as a digital painting? You never know; you might end up creating a masterpiece.
