How I Did That

Lots of folks have asked me how I applied the various artistic effects. I'm happy to share the technique, but I'm afraid that lots of folks are going to be disappointed:

	I don't use Photoshop, so I just can't tell anyone how to do this in Photoshop.
	It's real easy. In fact, I most often use the default settings.

My photo-editing software is Paint Shop Pro X2. I've been using PSP for many years. In the old days, PSP was free while Photoshop cost several hundreds of dollars. Nowadays, PSP is a purchasable product, and its purchase price is comparable to many versions of Photoshop. I've been tempted to convert to Photoshop (because there are more books & classes for Photoshop), but I've never gotten around to switching. Besides, I don't think Photoshop can do these artistic effects as easily as PSP.

In any case, these artistic effects are some of the bells & whistles in Paint Shop Pro. So, sorry, there's no magic technique I can teach to a Photoshop person.

There are two techniques documented on this page. Click on the image to see a step by step explanation on how each was accomplished.

The "Enamel" Effect

The "Paint Brush" Effect

The "Enamel" Effect

Step One
Here's the original full frame.

Some photographers revel in filling their camera viewfinder with the original image. Not me. I do a lot of cropping. That comes from working with my original camera -- an old antique rangefinder. One can never be sure where the edges of the image are, so I got in the habit of stepping back & including more than I needed in the image.

Besides, cropping is fun.

This particular image was from the last page of my first sitting with Valentine.

Step Two
Here's the cropping I chose.

I chose to eliminate the edges of the window -- without that context, the remaining image is a bit more abstract. (I've also done an alternative, more radical cropping, where Valentine's hands are in the opposite corners of the image).

I like doing the cropping as the very first step in my photo-processing. The resulting file is smaller & easier/quicker to edit.

Once I have the cropping I like, I resize the image for web presentation. Nowadays, I resize the image to be 700 pixels in the longest dimension. I also save a separate edited version that wasn't resized -- that's the version I use when printing.

Step Three

The next step is some basic image adjustments.

Paint Shop Pro X2 has a one-stop command, called "Smart Photo Fix", but these steps are easy enough to do separately. The basic adjustments:

	Made the shadows a tad darker.
	Made the highlights a tad brighter.
	Made the overall picture a tad brighter.
	Ramped up the color saturation just a bit.
	Added just a little image sharpening.

The purpose of this image is to be a bit blurred (by the steam in the steam room) -- I like that there are areas that are indistinct.

Step Four

My pseudo-sepia toning is part of my personal style, and since this image is almost monochromatic already, I decided to apply my sepia toning. PSP has a "Colorize" command, which I use with the following parameters:

	Hue = 23
	Saturation = 75

PSP also has a "Clarify" command which gives the tones a little pop. I apply it with a very low setting (1.0).

Step Five

Nearly all of the time, I stop with the sepia toned image, but on occasion, I like to go a little wild. For this image, since it is already abstract, I decide to experiment a bit.

Starting with the colored image from "Step Three", I apply PSP's "Artistic Effects -- Enamel" command, with its default settings:

	Blur = 20
	Detail = 16
	Density = 16
	Angle (of the "light source") = 45
	Color (of the edges) = white

It's fun to play with these settings, but as much as I've played with them, I still like the default settings the best. Go figure.

I chose to start with the color image, not the sepia image. I've used this "enamel" effect on sepia images, and the result does have multiple colors, but in those cases, the colors are from a fairly restricted palette. Starting with a color image results in a somewhat more colorful enamel effect.

Step Six

We are almost done. The last step is to ratchet up the color saturation. In this case, I use PSP's "Automatic Saturation Enhancement" command with the following settings:

	Bias: More Colorful
	Strength: Strong

I also take this opportunity to apply the "Clarify" command with a low setting (1.0).

That's it. That's how it's done.

Here's another image with the "Enamel Effect" applied, presented in a different manner (if you have a slow connection, you'll have to be patient while it loads). This image is of Jessica from her Fourth Visit.

The "Paint Brush" Effect

To be honest, I didn't like this image a whole lot when I first saw it. While I love Floofie's svelte & shapely figure, this image made me a little uneasy:

Her left shoulder almost looks dislocated.

Floofie has a lovely face, but I'm not sure about its position here -- is she turning away?

There are plenty of images of Floofie's lovely face that I like, but not this one. So, I look to cropping to see if I can "save" this particular images.

This particular image was from the second page of my first sitting with Floofie.

Step Two
Here's the cropping I chose.

I chose to eliminate that bony or "dislocated" shoulder. I've never been a big fan of knees, either, so I cropped above them, too.

I also like doing the cropping as the very first step in my photo-processing. The resulting file is smaller & easier/quicker to edit.

Once I have the cropping I like, I resize the image for web presentation. Nowadays, I resize the image to be 700 pixels in the longest dimension. I also save a separate edited version that wasn't resized -- that's the version I use when printing.

	Made the shadows a lot darker.
	Made the highlights somewhat brighter.
	Made the overall picture somewhat brighter.
	Ramped up the color saturation just a bit.
	Added just a little image sharpening.

I'm already liking this image a lot more.

	Hue = 23
	Saturation = 75

PSP also has a "Clarify" command which gives the tones a little pop. I apply it with a low setting (2.0).

I like this image quite a bit. I love the shapes & shadows.

Step Five

Nearly all of the time, I stop with the sepia toned image, but on occasion, I like to go a little wild. For this image, I decide to experiment a bit.

Starting with the sepia image from "Step Four", I apply PSP's "Art Media Effects -- Brush Strokes" command, with its default settings:

	Softness = 20
	Length = 10
	Density = 25
	Bristle = 160
	Width = 5
	Opacity = 50
	Angle = 102
	Color = Black

It's fun to play with these settings, but as much as I've played with them, I still like the default settings the best, especially when working with images of this size. When I work with larger images, I do have to tweak these settings a lot.

Step Six

We are almost done. The last step is to ratchet up the color saturation. In this case, I use PSP's "Automatic Saturation Enhancement" command with the following settings:

	Bias: More Colorful
	Strength: Strong

Even though this effect was applied to a monochromatic image, the results are very interesting to me. The original color image didn't exactly have a lot of color to it, so I saw no point in starting with it. The "enamel" effect does add new colors to the image, but this "Paint Brush" effect just uses the colors of the image.

That's it. That's how it's done.

There are other effects that I enjoy playing with. Let me know if you would like to see similar step-by-step descriptions on how I've applied them. I also note that the Paint Shop Pro product information web page offers a free trial of PSP, if you want to experiment on your own.