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Andrew James

There are two ways you can create an image that looks like an impressionist painting. One involves Photoshop filters but a more satisfying option is to use the technique of intentional camera movement (ICM).

Andrew James

Andrew is a highly experienced writer and photographer – if you have a problem, he is here to help.

Making a good impression

Q I’ve seen images that almost look like impressionist paintings. Can you tell me how this is done?

Jeff Reece

A There are two options here, Jeff. Either the image has been created by using intentional camera movement (ICM) or a conventional image has been brought into Photoshop and then given a treatment using a filter. To do this in Photoshop, you’d go to Filter >Filter Gallery and choose one of the main Artistic options available, such as Paint Daubs, Dry Brush, Watercolour and Rough pastels. You can play around with the strength of each filter to see if there is anything you like that works with the photo you have chosen.

I’m not a great fan of these filters but I acknowledge they can be fun. The ICM route is more satisfying and takes a bit of skill to get right. You need a slow shutter speed, something like 1/8 sec and a lot of trial and error. You need to deliberately jiggle the camera about as you shoot your images, which makes composition slightly harder, so I always think it’s worth shooting a wider than you need and cropping afterwards. The danger with this technique is the image can sometimes look a little ‘muddy’ if the scene isn’t colourful. You might need to add some extra clarity afterwards in post-processing because even an impressionist-style photo needs good contrast, just as a real painting does. However, get it right and you have a unique image of a scene, as no two ICM images ever look exactly the same.