How to Create Picture Art

Choose the photo you want to use

You can turn your snapshots into beautiful paintings or prints for your wall several ways . You might want to make your photo look like a painting instead of a photo. You can make it into a Pop-Art photo-montage by repeating the same photo in different colors on the same canvas or change the colors in the photo to match your room. In this article, we will concentrate on changing the single image into a painting that you can have printed and framed to hang on your wall.

Things You'll Need

• Sharp-definition photo
• Computer
• Adobe Photoshop®

Instructions

Using a Printing Service

1. 

   Locate a company to which you may send your photo or find a local company that does this sort of thing. Many companies produce canvases or prints on foam core, ready to frame.

2. You can take you photo to a print shop to be made into a picture. You may be surprised what your local printer can do.

3. If you have a digital print in your computer that you wish to have the print shop make into picture art, you can download it onto a CD or send it to them by e-mail.

Deciding on What You Want

1. You will need to be able to tell whatever service you choose how big you want your photo to be in its finished state.

2. You will need to determine the dimensions of the outside edges, both length and breadth.

3. You will need to tell them what kind of backing you want (either canvas or foam core).

4. You will need to decide how and whether you want your photo altered in any way.

5. Then you will need to find out the cost, pay them and give them the photo.

Changing the Photo Yourself

1. 

   If you want to change your photo into a picture yourself instead of letting the service change it, you can scan it into Adobe Photoshop® and change the colors with curves (Control-M), and/or add a filter. Below are samples of how radically you can change the original picture shown above by using filters.

   The filters in Photoshop allow you to change your pictures into a Pop Art painting by using cutout. Here, the original image is changed by using Cutout filter (using eight levels), cleaning up the edges and putting some black into the eyes.

2. 

   Here the original photo is changed into a drawing by using the Dry Brush filter (be sure to make your picture extremely light before trying this filter).

3. 

   Here the original Image is changed by using Neon Glow filter and changing the color of the heart to pink, adding some pink to her arms and face, and smudging the edges of any pink color added.

4. 

   You can change your original image into a watercolor painting by using the watercolor filter or into other kinds of paintings using different kinds of brush stroke filters.

   Here the original image is changed by using Dry Brush filter, and a Watercolor filter is added.

Printing the Picture Art Image

1. In order to make your home-made Photo Picture Art into a large image you must be able to change the dots per inch (dpi) from 72 to 300 by clicking on Image and Image Size and changing it in that palette.

2. You will also change the size of the image from a few inches into the size you wish your image to be when it is blown up in this same palette.

3. Load the image onto a CD and take it to your local printer's shop to have it enlarged, if you do not have a printer at home that can print large images. Sometimes you can send it with by e-mail.

   Besides the quality that a printer can give you, it is less expensive to have someone else print it than to print it at home.

4. If you wish, you can just change the dpi to 300, change the image to fit onto an 81/2 X 11-inch piece of paper and print it out on your home printer (setting it for high quality) onto cover stock, or onto glossy photo paper.

Tips & Warnings

• Other photo-altering programs besides Photoshop include Corel Paint Shop Pro® or Ulead Photo Impact®. They allow you to change your photos into paintings, cartoons and to add special effects. Some of the digital cameras and camera-phones, such as the Sony Ericsson® W580i WHT, can change your picture into a cartoon or other image as soon as you take it. If you don't have a sharp-definition photo, it is still possible to get a good picture from a favorite photo by using brushstroke or paint filters. They work beautifully by giving your photo a painterly look.

• Check around on the prices of enlarging and changing your photos into Picture Art. There is a wide range of prices. Of course, experts may charge higher prices.

References

• Printing photos on the HP Printer
• Darlin, Damon. Why Do-It-Yourself Photo Printing Doesn't Add Up, New York Times, Oct. 2005
• Everyday Digital Scrapbooking, Oct 16, 2006

Resources

• See a wide range of possibilities for your photos