I am uncertain how to title this piece. I considered calling it “Artistic Expression In Photography” or “Photography As Art” or just plain “Photo Art”. I am aware that “Art photography” seems to have a different connotation, perhaps a bit pretentious, (perhaps a bit risqué).
To me it all starts with the thought—”Why not use a photographic image as the basis for a painting or sketch?” For many years artists have painted from photographs with varying degrees of success &, no doubt, some colossal failures.
It was in 2005 that I had my first experience in an APS (Australian Photographis Society) folio attempting to create what was then known as Altered Reality. No one ever truly got to grips with what constituted altered reality & there was never, to the best of my knowledge, an agreed definition. As time went by we submitted our images & exchanged ideas until finally the folio was given a new name, Photo Art. Still no definition to guide us but all bets were off so long as there was evidence of a photographic component to our images. It was about that time I first considered using image manipulation techniques to alter a photographic image to resemble a painting & explored the possibilities using the various tools & filters in Photoshop.
More recently I have found the shortcuts that are available by using the pre-sets in programs such Corel Paint &, after a suggestion that came from James, Dynamic Auto Painter. These programs are very user friendly & it can be good fun watching the photo that has been opened on the work palette change as the process proceeds with no further input from the human hand once the start button has been pressed.
Of course the programs do allow for a certain degree of manipulation but generally the results achieved are quite random & it is always a surprise to see the final result emerge on the screen. Using these methods does not make one a Monet or a Rembrandt but with a little thought carefully selected images that are subjected to the auto painting process can achieve pleasing results.
If you wish to try this for yourself there are many free downloads available on the web & some interesting clips on YouTube to get you started.
Have fun!
David D-M
http://www.mediachance.com/dap/index.html
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