"How to: Red Espresso" PE5 Plus

Red Espresso

I have recently found a few new free to edit photographs from Pixabay, Picjumbo, and a few others. I had an email to myself of the sites which I promptly deleted today upon doing some email clean up. It is a listing from Kim Garst's Blog online. So I hope I can find it again.

I did not keep track of the source of this photograph I chose to digitally paint, but it was a large file size with great dpi and depth of colors.

I first opened it in Paint.NET on my laptop. I did some Adjustments using Curves for depth and increasing the Saturation to 110. I saved this file.

Next, I used Picasa's HDR tool with light settings for that sharp look and feel. I saved again.

I reopened the image in Corel's Painter Essentials 5 (PE5.) Here I selected to do an Oil Painting with Acrylic and Oils Brush: Opaque Detail Brush. It was a small brush which gave the oil painting much detail. I saved the file with a new name.

I added my signature layer in Corel's PhotoPaint, and saved this iteration. Then I resampled the file for display here. I used the settings 240dpi 1220 X 813 and saved with a new name. An optimzed JPG with compression at 75 and smoothing at 25.

With the Oil Painting having a white surrounding area I decided to add a Frame. I used Picasa's Museum Matte tool, giving it a red matte. I saved this iteration, slightly larger with the Frame and matte added.

Thus, you have the image for today, "Red Espresso."

"Steps To: Red Brick Wall, Door, and Bike" Corel

Red Brick Wall Door and Bike

Steps to do this and the Programs used:

• Picasa - HDR settings Strength=High Radius=Medium
• Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 settings Watercolor Sketch, Rough Paper, Colors=Intense, Dry Brush
• Corel PSP Pro X3 settings Smart Photo Fix=Brightened, Colorful, Sharpness Saturation=Vibrancy at 33
• Photograph from UNSplash Free Photos

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"Blue Eyed Woman in Red with Book and Tea" Corel

Blue Eyed Woman in Red with Book and Tea

I found on the Internet, another free photograph site called Unsplash. I subscribed to their site and I selected a "Blue Eyed Woman in Red with Book and Tea," photograph to create today's image.

Being that it was a large image I cropped to focus upon the Woman and details. I did this in Corel PhotoPaint. I saved the cropped photograph. I wanted a Pastel look and feel to the piece.

I opened it in Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 and used the Pastel Drawing set, not changing any of the settings. I touched up the eyes with the Soft Edge Brush. I saved that large iteration.

Opening in Corel PSP Pro X3 I used the Smart Photo Fix tool, deepening the Midtones and increasing the color. I added more punch to the Red with the Saturation Vibrancy tool. I saved again, then added my signature, resized for display and saved the final image for posting.