Introduction

Who is this book for?

Whether you are new to digital imaging or are already familiar with Painter and other graphics programs, I am confident that this book will help you to expand your creative abilities and make many brilliant new pictures from your photographs.

As the title suggests, this book is aimed solely at photographers – of all types.

For the professional photographer there are techniques which can turn a standard portrait or wedding picture into a premium priced product which is unique and desirable.

If you are a serious amateur photographer you can learn how to make pictures which are subtle or powerful according to your intentions and which are very different to work produced by many others.

For the casual photographer who would like to turn family snapshots into painterly pictures suitable for hanging on the wall there are simple step by step demonstrations to guide you from the original photograph to the finished picture.

What’s special about this book?

There are other books which teach you how to use Painter from an artist’s point of view, but this is the only one to focus solely on the photographic aspect. This approach has the great advantage that everything in the book is relevant and useful to photographers.

Painter 11 for Photographers progresses step by step from very simple techniques to more advanced technical expertise. Throughout the book the many illustrations are intended to provide ideas and inspiration combined with clear instructions to make the very best of your own image.

The purpose of this book is to give you a sound knowledge of the tools which Painter provides and of the techniques needed to use them. There is a wide range of skills to be learned and this book guides you through them in a simple, logical and exciting way. Of course, this is only the starting point; good technique does not ensure that you make a good picture, but it is essential to master this first. Once that is done your own imagination and personal style will lead you to make the great pictures that you are visualizing. All the image files for the step by step examples are provided on the accompanying DVD. Use these first and then try out the technique on your own photographs.

Why use Painter?

Photography is about documenting the reality around us – the photographer deciding how to interpret that reality through the choice of lenses, viewpoint and composition. Sometimes, however, this reality is not enough; it doesn’t reflect the feelings that we originally experienced. This is not surprising of course as the conditions have changed, the sensory pleasure has been lost, the smells, sounds and atmosphere are all gone and all we now have is a one-dimensional piece of film, print or electronic image.

So we often want to take our picture further to better reflect what we felt at the time and to communicate this to the viewer who has no recall of the original experience.

This is where the fabulous Corel Painter program comes in. It is quite unique in the way it replicates traditional media and gives us the opportunity to take our pictures into another dimension altogether, revealing the hauntingly beautiful, mysterious and alluring world of the imagination.

What’s in Painter 11 for Photographers?

Learning the basics

‘Getting started in Painter 11’ is a simple guide to the Painter program. This is for the total beginner and takes a brief look at the main tools and palettes, and includes general hints and tips on how to get the best out of the program. It also gives help to Photoshop users in understanding the differences between the two programs. If you have used Painter before you could skip this section and go straight on to the first cloning chapter. ‘First steps in cloning’ shows the process through which we transform photographs from their original state to a new and exciting existence. Even at this early stage of the book you will be able to make beautifully soft images and we are still only on the first chapter!

Understanding brushes

Brushes are at the heart of everything we do in Painter and understanding which brush to use and how it works is crucial to working creatively. ‘Choosing brushes’ illustrates every one of the main brush categories and explains how they differ. Examples of finished pictures are provided as a source for ideas and inspiration. There are more detailed step by step tutorials on the DVD, together with the source photographs to enable you to make these pictures yourself. The ‘Customizing brushes’ chapter shows how the standard brushes can be customized using the Brush Control palettes and Brush Creator.

Paper textures

Paper textures are an essential part of using Painter; they provide depth and texture to the picture and the program has hundreds to choose from. ‘Paper textures’ explains what textures are and how to use them while painting, and also how to apply the same textures at the end of the painting process.

There are illustrations of every paper texture which is available in the Painter program on the DVD that accompanies this book. This is an invaluable resource which can be printed or viewed in more detail on your own computer.

Advanced techniques

The chapter on ‘Layers and montage’ explains how layers work, including the way in which individual layers can be combined creatively to produce stunning new effects.

The ‘Using color’ chapter shows how to select colors and how to use the many adjustment menus to enhance the tone and color in your pictures. Hand tinting and toning are also covered here.

Landscape and portraits

These chapters contain various ways to create landscapes and portraits from original photographs.

Other ways to use Painter

There are also lots of special effects available – everything from simulating burnt paper to making kaleidoscopic images. This section is great fun and packed full of colorful examples.

Printing and presentation

When you have completed your picture you still need to print and present it to the best possible advantage. This chapter gives some ideas on presentation and design, plus practical advice on printing including what file size you should use.

What should I Know before I start?

This book has been written on a PC and all the screen shots reflect that platform. Painter operates virtually identically on both PC and Macintosh computers. Keyboard shortcuts are of course different – the Ctrl key on Windows becomes the Cmd key on the Mackintosh, and likewise the Alt becomes Opt.

If you have used Painter before and are following my step by step instructions it may be advisable to return the brushes to their default settings before you begin, or they may not react as predicted. To do this, click on the small triangle on the Brush Selector and select Restore All Default Variants.

Always remember to save your picture regularly to avoid losing work. It is also good practice to work on a copy of your picture and keep the original safe.

When you see this symbol, it means that the original files are on the DVD for you to use.

What’s new in Painter 11?

The most exciting introduction in Painter are the new brushes – 40 in all and all really excellent. There is also a significant quantity of changes to make the program easier and faster than ever to use. Most of these features are covered within the main body of the book so this is an overview of the principal changes.

Color management

Not perhaps the most exciting of subjects, but one of vital importance to all users of Painter. When we want to share or send our picture to other people, or to print them, we want them to look the same as they did when we created them. Color management handles this and in Painter 11 we finally have the tools necessary to control colors effectively. The new settings are described in detail in Chapter 12 ‘Printing and presentation’ The ability to soft-proof prior to printing is also very useful.

Figure 1. Color Management Settings dialog box

New tools

The Polygonal Selection tool has been added which makes it much easier to select straight lines without resorting to the Pen tool. When you are using the Polygonal tool you can switch to the Lasso tool by keeping the Ctrl/Cmd key depressed – the tool will revert back when the key is released.

Figure 2. The Toolbox with the new tools highlighted in red

The Transform tool is new and very welcome; all the Transform menu items have been combined in this tool and the options are available on the Properties bar. They include Move, Scale, Rotate, Distort and Perspective.

The Magic Wand has been improved and now selects more accurately.

Other improvements

Many of the brushes have been made to work faster and now utilize Tablet Tilt so the angle of the pen determines the width of the stroke. Velocity Control has been improved so that fast brush strokes deposit less paint than slow strokes.

Operational improvements mean that Painter can now use dual core processors and also has improved compatibility with Photoshop. As you would expect, it now uses the current operating systems from Microsoft and Apple.

Painter 11 now supports the png format: This is a lossless file compression format which allows transparency, unlike JPEG.

New brushes

There is one new brush category, Markers, which replicates the use of the real life markers in that they have broad strokes which build up with each application. From a photographic point of view they are of limited interest as they will not clone well due to the density increasing very quickly.

Figure 3. The new Hard Media palette

The other brushes are not in a separate category but are sensibly spread in the existing brush categories and are all called ‘Real’ brushes. Unlike the Markers, these are nearly all excellent for use in cloning from photographs. They are fast and easy to use, and are mainly in the Hard Media style, that is Chalks, Pastels, Pens, etc. They even have their own palette in which the characteristics can be altered with ease. There are several step by step tutorials in this book which use the new brushes. The new variants are in the following brush categories:

Pencils, Erasers, Colored Pencils, Chalk, Conte, Pastels, Blenders, Sumi-e, Calligraphy, Digital Watercolor and Acrylic. A selection of the new brush types are shown in Figure 4; all these are on the default settings with the Clone Color option turned on.

Figure 4. Some of the new ‘Real’ brushes