As photography changed the world of art, now art is changing photography as the two meet in the digital age. With digital cameras, advances in color printing, and new software tools that allow you to not only capture digital images, but to use those images to create digital paintings. The rules of both branches of art work have changed dramatically.
Where these two disciplines will end up is not for sure, but one thing is certain, growth in this direction will continue to evolve. Beyond Digital Photography brings these two technologies together into an instructive book that uses basic drawing and painting skills and applies them to digital photographs. Beyond Digital Photography is 256 pages and eight chapters.
Chapter One, "Getting Started," will show you what you need get started in digital photographic painting by first looking at some of the hardware and software you will need to set up your studio. You will look at the interfaces for both Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter. You will also look at are some of the important concepts like pixels and resolution, as well as tips for working with a Wacom tablet.
Chapter Two, "Painterly Techniques for Non-Painters," is written for photographers who are not comfortable with painting by hand as well as for those who want to explore a filter recipe approach to painting. You will learn how to create a Pop Art look, use filters to create an Impressionistic watercolor, use Auto-Painting, simplify a Photograph for a more hand rendered result, and create a graphic wood cut look.
Chapter Three, "Emphasizing the Subject," now looks at taking a photo and improving the composition design by focusing more attention on your subject. The first technique is to subdue the background to center focus on the subject and the second is to simplify the detail and sharpen the subject.
Chapter Four, "Adding Texture to Photographs," gives your images more feel. In this chapter, you will look at how to work with the Art History Brush in combination with brush presets to create a textured painted look. Then you create a dry media texture look with pastels using a custom cloning brush. Finally, you work with black and white to give the appearance of a charcoal rendering using Blenders and Charcoal brushes.
Chapter Five, "Emulating the Look of Watercolor," will show you how to simulate the look of conventional watercolors. You first look at a soft diffused painting using digital watercolor techniques and blenders. Then you will see how to create a portrait using Photoshop's Pattern Stamp, Pattern features, brush presets and finishing up by adding a scan of watercolor paper that is blended with the watercolor brushwork.
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