(See my blog Digital Lady Syd Reviews Alien Skin Snap Art 3 for other examples of what this plug-in will do.) Photoshop’s Oil Paint Filter This plug-in is definitely a good choice if you want this type of look.

For more info on the post-processing settings, see Image 1 at end of blog. The Oil Paint (dry brush) was used as the basis for this image with several slider changes made to get the final look. I really like the very final look Snap Art gave this image above. (See my Nik’s Viveza 2 Plug-In – A Hidden Gem! blog.) Alien Skin’s Snap Art 3 It is probably not the best image but I thought it made a good test choice since it had lots of foreground details and color, and a beautiful landscape cloud expanse in the background, All the examples started with the same basic brightening done in Lightroom and then applying Nik’s fabulous Viveza plug-in in Photoshop. This picture was taken along the International Coastal Waterway in Ormond Beach on a very windy day – the clouds were building.

I must admit this is not a very scientific comparison since I used different steps for the different results each software presented – but it still gave me a feel for what painterly looks can be achieved with a little manipulation. I wanted to keep to an Oil Paint look, but not all the software supports this. Since I was surprised by how nice Alien Skin’s Snap Art 3 plug-in performed in last week’s blog, I thought I would compare it to other programs and see if it was really that good. This week I decided to do the same image using different painting effects to see which ones I like the best.

Dynamic auto painter 6