RUsum1

I don't have "color" in my effects menu. I'll see if I can somehow get it working. Would it be better to resize it larger before working on it? That way the changes made might look better since they're done at the higher resolution? I don't have access to a larger picture. I randomly found that image on Google by typing "Folly Beach Pier" or something and looking at the images. Not sure if there even is a larger version available. That is pretty good. Maybe a little too much added texture causing the picture to be lighter than I would like. I'll give that cloud tutorial a try to add to my picture.

I would like both pictures to look like artwork with improved colors. They are both a little drab on their own I think. I like ERam's tip on color enhancement with the duplicate layer. I'll be sure to use that while experiementing with stuff myself. The other thing I kind of dislike about the second picture is how close in color the sky is with the water. If the clouds could get a more purple tint or something added to them I think it would help. I used ERam's color enhancement along with the Dream setting and it turned into this which looks much better than the original picture. I find myself liking the "Dream" artistic setting (haven't been able to try that tutorial which requires the Metallic plugin since I can't find Metallic setting anywhere). I just wish it didn't have to look as blurry as it does. I am not sure if it would bug me into thinking my vision is out of focus when looking at it on the wall. Regardless of how complicated your steps are, please share. If it's too complicated, maybe you can just email the result to me if I really like it. Thanks for the interest and keep the suggestions coming.

To go along with the picture above, I have another picture that I think would compliment it well. Kind of an end-of-the-day, spent-the-entire-day surfing conclusion. I think this one will take a little more work though because it has a lot of grey in it. If the color of the sky or the water could change in some way to add a variety of color, that would be awesome. I'm just not even sure where to begin with this one. Hopefully some people can provide me with some ideas. Thank you

Alright here is what I got after doing some color leveling (I think...) and adjusting the Dream settings. I tried to change to roof colors and the sand color in the bottom right as well. If there are better ways to do these things please let me know. I think overall I like the look, I'm just not too sure about the little bit of blurriness. Here is the artistic Dream look and then the same look with additional Landscape Sharpening done to it (with "2" in the title). The original picture is in first post to compare. Please leave feedback of which you think would look better hanging on a wall and/or what modifications you would do.

I tried to follow that second tutorial to see how my photo will turn out but I'm not able to find the metalize plugin. I copied the DLLs to the effects folder of paint and did the steps to "unblock" it but I can't find it. Also, Norton recognizes all of the DLLs as security risks and flags them. Is there a way around that? After adding several plugins, I did notice a new "Dream" artistic option which seems pretty cool. I tried to tinker a round with that a little but not sure if I like it for my final.

Is there a way to search this specific thread for a term? I wanted to see if this question was already asked... After copying the DLLs to my Effect folder Norton recognizes all of them as a security risk. It says that the items have been removed but I still see them in the folder. However I still can't find Metallize (effects > color > metallize)? Color is not an option in the effects menu nor do I see anything in adjustments.

I want to add a piece of art to my wall but most of the stuff I see in stores aren't exactly what I want. There have been some that I like but they are pictures instead of artwork. I want something that looks like a painting. I recently found out that it's pretty easy to turn a photo into something that looks like art so I have been trying that with this photo I Googled. (attached) It is pretty much exactly what I want except for a couple of small changes. 1) I would like the overall colors to be a little more vibrant. This picture seems just a tad muted. I used the "auto level" feature which helped get more of what I wanted. 2) I would like the rooftops of each building to be Navy Nautical/Royal Blue (my sheets arrived in the mail and they aren't really "navy" at all) in order to go with my bedroom color scheme better. I think that minor adjustment to match my decor would really be a small detail that could make a big difference. I tried doing this on my own as well using that magic wand tool to select the roof and adjusting the Hue/Saturation but for some reason I can never get it quite right so maybe I am doing a bad method. I wish there was a straight line selector tool where I could just select the corners one by one to select the entire roof with straight edges but I don't know where to find that. 3) I think the small portion of sand in the bottom right of the picture would look better if it were more of a yellowish-brown just to add a little extra color to the picture. 4) Of least importance, I might add one or two more white clouds in the sky just to break up the solid color sky a little. 5) Hopefully after making the adjustments, making the picture larger won't make it look aweful. Since I want to be able to print this onto either an 18x24 canvas or 16x20 These seem like they would be easy fixes for someone who knows what they are doing. I've tried a few methods myself but they never turn out right. I've done the change to oil painting feature with a layer of a pencil sketch on top to maintain a little bit of detail that the oil painting destroys. The closes to my vision I have been able to get is by doing an ink sketch (also attached) but I want a brush painting, not something that looks like a colored in drawing. If anyone can get something that looks close to this but with a brush stroke look instead of the ink lines, and a couple extra clouds that would really help me out a lot. I plan on using the picture and submitting it to a canvas printing company to make this a 24x18 picture. Thanks for any tips and help.