When I first started in photography not many people were doing creative fine art. Ten years down the line it’s common place and when my creativity becomes mainstream I’m ready to move on to pastures new.

I had no clue, however, what the new pastures looked like until I came across photographs which looked like paintings. As someone who has always been artistic (I passed my Art O Level at school when I was just 14) it’s the artistic side to photography which appeals to me the most. The technical side, it has to be said, bores me rigid which is probably why printing my images is my least favourite task!

I assumed that the ‘painted’ photographs had been achieved using some fancy software but, in fact, they’d been hand done by the photographer in Photoshop using the mixer brush. I’d seen the mixer brush icon in my toolbar, obviously, but had no idea what it was or what it did so consequently had ignored it for a decade. 

The mixer brush basically smudges and blends together the colours in your photo, using the existing pixels so it’s safe to use for competition images. It is a devil of a tool to master and I’m still just in the early learning stage, but so far I’m enjoying the results.

As you can see the effect is subtle, although as the painter you are in charge of how ‘painted’ you want the image to be. As this is a portrait I wanted it to still look natural and could go to town more on a wildlife or landscape image.

‘Painting’ with the mixer brush is stupidly time consuming. You are literally painting the image with a digital brush (I can hide the original photograph and still be left with the image on the right) and there is definitely a skill involved in blending but not over blending, blending but not under blending, and not smudging the colours to the point where it becomes a muddy puddle lacking all detail and texture. I’m sure judges in camera club competitions will be completely unaware of the time and skill involved in creating a good painted photograph, but as always the goal for me is simply enjoying the process – whether or not anyone else likes or appreciates the picture is largely irrelevant.

I haven’t tried painting a full landscape yet, but I have used the mixer brush to soften backgrounds. A farming neighbour breeds race horses and asked me to pop along to his field and take some snaps of his horses. They refused to look up for me so the images weren’t usable, but here’s an example of how the mixer brush and an added texture can be used to change even the most bland of images.

I’m now in the process of moving house and for the next few months my time for photography is going to be very limited, but I know painting with the mixer brush is something I’ll do more of in 2024. I liked that it gives me the ability to put my own unique stamp on my photographs and makes them into something artistic.

This will be my last post of the year, so I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a fabulous, creative 2024. Keep snapping!