Photography as Drawings and Paintings

Seeing with different eyes~

Image of John C. at the Sea Caves in St. Martins, NB modified with a Topaz Filter in Photoshop.

Photoshop filters and add-ons can be fun to play with. One of my favourites is Topaz Impression, which allows you to “see” your image as a particular painting or drawing technique, or as an Impressionist master might approach it. It doesn’t work for every image, nor should it, but filters can sometimes extend your vision of what you saw when you snapped the shutter in the first place. 

This is a collection of some images with various painting or drawing filters applied after normal processing. 

Above~ John at the Sea Caves in St. Martins, NB (as Cézanne might paint it). Below~ Kettle Creek at the back of Waterworks Park, St. Thomas, ON (Pastel filter applied). 

Tundra Swans at the Aylmer Wildlife Management Area near Aylmer, ON--Watercolour filter.

Above~ Tundra Swans at the Aylmer Wildlife Management Area near Aylmer, ON (Watercolour filter).

A pastel world~

Fingal Wildlife Management Area--Pastel filter applied.

Above~ Fingal Wildlife Management Area near Iona, Ontario in the late afternoon. Below~ Bicycle by side of the road in Maine. Pastel filter applied to both.

Image of a bicycle by the side of the US Route 1 in Maine using Topaz Pastel filter in Photoshop.

Time well wasted~

Image at Springwater Conservation Area w/Charlie using a Topaz Filter in Photoshop.

Above~ Charlie on the boardwalk at Springwater Conservation Area near Aylmer, ON. Below~ Abby on the dock at Springwater (each with Oil Glaze filter). Both dogs, beloved family pets, are gone now but somehow these techniques cement their memories. 

Image at Springwater Conservation Area w/Abby using a Topaz Filter in Photoshop.

A magical world~

Scene at Waterworks Park in St. Thomas, ON using Topaz Watercolour filter in Photoshop.

Above & Below~ Waterworks Park in the late afternoon (Watercolour filter).

Scene at Waterworks Park in St. Thomas, ON using Topaz Watercolour filter in Photoshop.

Get closer~

Image of leaves at Yarmouth Natural Heritage Area using a Topaz Filter in Photoshop.

Above~ Leaves at the Yarmouth Natural Heritage Area near Sparta, ON (Watercolour filter applied). Below~ Moss and Leaves at Archie Coulter Conservation Area near Aylmer, ON (Degas filter).

Image of moss and leaves at Archie Coulter Conservation Area using a Degas filter.

Works with people too~

Our friend Yvonne in St. Martins, NB using the Topaz Pastel filter in Photoshop.

While these filters rarely work well on people’s faces, they can sometimes enhance a scene and capture the “feel” of the moment. Above~ Yvonne in St. Martins, NB (Pastel filter). Below~ Disc golfing with the boys at Steen Park in Aylmer, ON (Turner Storms filter).

Image at the Disc Golf in Steen Park in Aylmer, ON using the Turner Storms filter.

Using the drawing filters~

Scene at Fingal Wildlife Management Area using the Topaz Colored Pencil filter.

Above~ Fingal Wildlife Management Area (Coloured Pencil filter, this image is repeated as a Pastel in the slideshow).
Below~ The Back Trailhead at Springwater Conservation Area (DaVinci Sketch filter).

Scene at Springwater Conservation Area near Aylmer, ON using Topaz DaVinci filter. 

Dorothy & Leo at the North Cape in PEI, charcoal filter effect.

The Charcoal filter has a lot of possibilities. Above~ Dorothy and Leo up at the North Cape in PEI.
Below~ Tree after a Snowfall (looking out our backdoor), and then Boat on shore at Campobello Island, NB.

Tree out our backdoor after snowfall--Charcoal filter.

Boat on shore at Campobello Island--Charcoal filter.

Examples~

Selecting an artist~

Screenshot of 360 pano midway on the boardwalk at Irving Nature Park in Saint John, NB.

Above~ Original image–screenshot of a 360 pano midway up the boardwalk at Irving Nature Park in Saint John, NB.
Below~ Same except as Van Gogh might paint it.

Screenshot of 360 pano midway on the boardwalk as Van Gogh might paint it at Irving Nature Park in Saint John, NB.

I tried several different artist filters–Degas, Georgia O’Keefe, Cezanne, Edward Hopper, Turner and so on. In this particular image, Van Gogh seemed to work best.  

Picking a technique~

Astronomer Chris Curwin setting up at the Saints Rest Beach in Saint John, NB original image.

Above~ Original RAW image of astronomer Chris Curwin setting up at Saints Rest Beach in Saint John at twilight. Nikon 5100, 10.5 mm lens, 1/60 sec., f 2.8, ISO 2800.

Astronomer Chris Curwin setting up at the Saints Rest Beach in Saint John, NB--Watercolour filter.

Above~ Same image, but with the Watercolour filter applied. It seemed better than the Pastel or Coloured Pencil versions.
Below~ Charcoal filter. Notice that when the Charcoal filter is applied, the focus becomes more what the person is doing and not so much the scenery.

Astronomer Chris Curwin setting up at the Saints Rest Beach in Saint John, NB--Charcoal filter applied.

Slideshow~

Notes~

Topaz Impression~ Discontinued? It appears so. Topaz Impression is part of the Topaz Studio suite which has/had a whole wide range of creative effects, and then support was dropped and it was discontinued. The parent company is Topaz Labs, which is getting heavy into AI assisted image and video editing, enhancement and improvement. Still a good company, different direction. I’ve been playing with this for a few years and am sorry to see it go. They were certainly ahead of their time. In hindsight, Topaz Impression was early AI.

Impression was handy as it acted like a spice rack with all your effects in one place. The whole Studio suite is massive, but you could narrow it down to just the ones you wanted, which required an extra step. Sometimes more is less, but to each his own.

While the Nik Collection (now DXO) offers some great filters, it and plugins like it don’t do the same thing. It is like “everyone is waiting for AI” and assuming that soon you will simply tell the computer “Gimmie a picture of Irving Nature Park as if Van Gogh painted it” and that will be good enough for most people. All I know is this program worked, and I’m glad I had the chance to play with this as long as I have.

My best guess: Apps of various types will replace some of the different parts of this program, but it is really handy to have everything in one spot. I will be greatly surprised if the new Apple M1 (M2 or M3) chips will allow it to work. Yet another reason to hang on to an older computer that can run some stuff.

And here’s to one guy who hasn’t changed: 
Astronomy by the Bay~ Chris Curwin’s Facebook page.

See also~

Boats on the Shore as Paintings~ Looking at boats around PEI and NB with different eyes.

Painted Horses~ Seeing images of horses as paintings.