Review: AKVIS Oil Paint Software

 

Hey guys! Today I've got a fun little photo editing software to review for you that turns your photos into oil paintings! AKVIS OilPaint is a program and photoshop plug-in that creates unique oil paintings out of your personal photos. Pretty cool, huh?

The stand-alone editing program is pretty cool, because it allows you to adjust lots of different things like brush stroke size and direction. The program was a little difficult to navigate/master at first, but it got a little easier after fiddling with it for a while. I have a feeling that I would have liked the photoshop plug-in even more, since I am constantly using photoshop!

Personally, I think that photos that look best when converted to the oil paint are ones with lots of bokeh (background blur) and a well-defined subject. The photo of Skylar and I above included a little too much detail, and I wasn't as happy with how it turned out as opposed to the top picture.

The standard home edition of this starts at approximately $40, so it's definitely on the pricier end. AKVIS also has loads of similar photo editing software that turn your photos into sketches, HDR photos, and more. While I don't have much of a need for these products (photoshop gets the job done for me!) if you are someone who is very invested in creating art renditions of photographs, this program may be for you! I feel like prints of these photos would make great gifts as well!

Make sure to check out AKVIS on Facebook and Twitter!

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Photo Tips: My Favorite Must-Have (Free!) Photoshop Actions

Hello everybody! Today I'm going to share with you some of my favorite photoshop actions! If you're not sure what actions are, they are a sort of a 'one-click' photo editing system that can save you a ton of time. (you can read more on how to use photoshop actions here). Today I'm going to show you what photoshop action sets I use most frequently (which, consequently, are all free!).

NOTE: All of these photos were applied with the action once, with no further editing. The 'Original' photo is compleately SOOC (straight out of the camera). 

Simon Flip Action Set

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As of recently, these have been some of my favorite actions. Lots of these have a dreamy, vintage feel to them, especially 'Goldfinch'. Also, the 'Leaves' action is one of my all around favorites, as it evens out color and boots contrast in one click! A lot of these actions have a hint of grain to them as well, making giving them an even more 'vintage' look.

Rocketlaunch Action Set

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I've had this set of actions for years, and keep going back to it. It has over 40 actions in it, with lots of different color combos and black & white options. A lot of them have a 'retro' feel to them. This set is definitely a must-have!

Little Lusker's Free Action Set

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Now, this is only a free sample of this brand's actions, but just the sample pack has blown me away. If you are looking for some simple but striking actions for portraiture photography, you need to download this set. I love these so much, I am looking into buying one of their full packages!

DBOX Instagram Action Set

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I originally downloaded this set for funsies, because I love instagram, haha! But I actually ended up really liking a lot of these actions, especially the black & white ones!  

Coffeshop's Vignette Action

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This is only one singular action, not a set, but it's a must-have for any photographer. It's amazing what a vignette can add to an image, especially a portrait. This one is pretty great, because it's adjustable as well!

AFW's 'Go Boom' Action

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Once again, this is only one action, but look at those colors! Whenever I use this action I typically tone down many of the color layers & levels, but this is what the action looks like untouched. I've even used it in a few of my 365 pictures! 

Well, there you have it! A few things to keep in mind: actions can be relative to your photos; one particular action may make one photo look great, and another photo blown out or over-edited. Sometimes it can just take some tweaking of the action's layers, or simply choosing another action. Eventually you'll find your own personal go-to actions!

Thanks for reading!

Photo Tips: Better Portraits with a DIY Reflector!

One of the biggest suggestions I got from my reader survey (which you can still take here and enter for a chance to win free money and suggest tutorials like these!) was more photo tutorials. Well, today I've got a super easy tutorial that you can use to make your portraits (or selfies!) look brighter and more professional. 

A reflector is used in portrait photography to spread more light across your subject's face. As you can see in the above before & after photo, without a reflector, I have some harsh, awkward shadows across my face, and it makes my eyes look dark. But with a reflector, the light on my face is more even and soft, which looks way more flattering!

So today, I'm going to show you how to DIY your own reflector for super cheap in under 5 minutes!

What You'll Need:

-A canvas (a piece of cardboard or other flat surface could work too!)

-Aluminum foil

- Tape

• First, spread your aluminum foil over your canvas with the matte (less shiny) side facing outward. (I find that if you use the shiner side, it makes it too harsh)

• Next, fold the edges down so the aluminum foil covers the entire canvas, as well as the sides.

• Finally, tape down all edges.

How easy is that? To use the reflector, have your model (or someone else) hold the reflector under their face, but out of view of the camera, like so:

And there you have it! This is a super easy and cheap way to improve your photos, without any fancy equipment. Please let me know if you try this out, or if you have any other photography tutorials you'd like to see!

Happy Wednesday!