Some days back, I was looking for a quick and easy way to add an artistic touch to my travel pictures. With a slew of free photo editing programs out there, I was sure I’ll find one that colors my pictures like famous paintings in one-click.
I didn’t have to look far: we covered FlauntR, a free photo editing download, here at MakeUseOf when it was in its Alpha stage. Register with FlauntR, and see how you can use its picasR function in 3 easy steps to quickly give your pictures that million-dollar painting look!
After logging in, click the picasR button in the top left row to get to the painting effects functionality.
If this is your first time using flauntR, the interface might seem complex at first, but I assure you that it’s not. The upper left box holds your source picture, the lower left box holds the painting you would like to use as a reference. Results of your magic appear in the center. Simple!
Step 1: Get Your Photo
From the bottom section, you can upload a picture from your computer, or directly import a picture from Flickr, Facebook, Picasa, etc. The flauntR tab shows your pictures saved in flauntR albums.
If you upload a new picture from your computer, switch to the flauntR tab to access your album and drag your picture to the workspace. I selected a simple photograph of a bunch of trees on a hill as an example.
Step 2: Select Famous Painting
From the famous paintings gallery on the right, select any painting. You can choose a subject that matches your picture (portrait, landscape, etc.) or you can get creative by blending anything you fancy. If you have a particular painting in mind that is not listed in the gallery, you can get its image from the Internet and use that as your reference image.
For example, let us select Arnold Böcklin’s The Sacred Wood in the symbolist style. Your desired reference image appears in your workspace below your original picture.
You can get help, zoom into the picture, or select a portion of the picture, using the icons at the top of both your picture and the reference image. If you wish to selectively apply the desired effect to only a part of your photo, use the selection icon. I liked the simple one-click process, but you can get creative if you want to apply effects of different paintings to different parts of your picture!
Step 3: Abracadabra!
Click Apply! Here are the results of my quick experiment as compared to my original picture:
The ‘Editing Tools’ drop-down toolbox lets you save your image, reset it back to original, and more. Once you’ve saved your new picture, you can easily download it, or share your “˜artwork’ with your friends on Flickr, Facebook, and other networks.
The painting color effect works best with outdoor pictures, but you can also use famous portrait paintings as your reference images. I found that I could work with large image sizes with no restrictions on file size. The ability to apply special effects, save, download, and share, are all free with no strings attached.
Which paintings did you use for your pictures? Share your results with us in the comments!
Tagged: fun • image editors • photo effects • photos
