5 Painterly Photoshop Tricks to Transform Your Photos into Art

5 Painterly Photoshop Tricks to Transform Your Photos into Art

A lot of photographers use Adobe Photoshop as a corrective tool:

They see it as a solution to fixing issues like skin imperfections, wrinkles in clothing, or dust and scratches on the backdrop.

However, Photoshop is so much more than that:

It’s like a digital paintbox with brushes, textures, and tools that let you transform your photos into artworks.

Of course, I also use Photoshop to fix mistakes or imperfections in my images.

However, much more than that, I use it as an artistic tool to give my photos a painterly aesthetic.

In today’s blog post, I will share my five favourite painterly Photoshop tools and tricks.

Try them today to give your images an artistic look in minutes!

1. Create Atmosphere with the Brush Tool + Colour Sampling

One of the easiest ways to give your photo that painterly, fine-art touch is to actually paint into the image. 

This technique is especially useful for portraits and landscapes where you want to soften transitions or add a dreamy, romantic vibe.

In fact, it is closely related to the classic art technique known as sfumato, famously used by Leonardo da Vinci:

“Sfumato” means “to tone down” or “to evaporate like smoke” in Italian and is all about softening edges and transitions so they feel like they’re dissolving into one another.

Have a look at one of the most famous paintings, which is actually a perfect example of sfumato–the Mona Lisa:

Mona Lisa (La Gioconda) by Leonardo da Vinci. Image credit: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

You can see that there are no harsh lines in the face or background.

Instead, there is a sort of “smoky haziness” and softness throughout the image, slightly blurring elements into one another.

With this first Photoshop technique, we’re trying to recreate that classic sfumato effect in a digital way.

To do this, we will use the Brush tool to create depth, atmosphere, and a painterly softness straight out of a da Vinci painting.

Here’s an example of a photograph where I added atmosphere with this technique:

How to Use This Technique for Painterly Photoshop Effects:

First, create a new layer and choose the Brush tool.

You’ll want to use a relatively large brush at a very low opacity, around 6-8%.

Then, sample colours directly from the photograph using the Eyedropper Tool. 

(You can do this by hitting Alt/Option and clicking on an area in the image you want to sample.)

Then slowly paint over larger areas, blending shadows or light falloff.

Keep resampling colours while you do this.

Essentially, you’re blending the colours, removing contrast, and creating smoother shifts between tones.

A word of warning though-don’t go overboard with this technique:

Painterly editing should look intentional but not obviously “Photoshopped.” 

Try to think like a painter: 

Where should the focus be? 

Where do you want softness? 

Where should the viewer feel warmth or mystery?

Take your time and build it up gradually until you lose that typical sharpness of digital photography.

Now, let’s talk about the next painterly Photoshop tip for artistic images, which is adding textures.

2. Add Fine Art Texture Layers

One of the main characteristics of a (digital) photograph is its smooth, flawless surface. 

Fine art paintings, in turn, have a texture you can actually feel with your fingers, from the tactile canvas surface to the raised brush strokes. 

Hence, if you want to give your photographs a painterly touch, adding texture is one of the most foolproof ways to do so.

One of my self portraits created with texture overlays.

Finding Textures

Photoshop may be a complicated software at times, but adding textures is incredibly easy and beginner-friendly.

To start, you will need a high-resolution photo of a texture such as canvas grain, watercolour paper, oil-paint brush strokes, or even a close-up of a painted wall. 

You can find such textures on free stock libraries like unsplash.com or pexels.com.

You can also scan your own textures from sketchbooks or old paintings, or simply create/paint new textures and photograph them.

Adding Textures in Photoshop

First, open the texture in Photoshop.

Copy it and drop it onto a new layer in your editing file. You can change the size and placement using the Free Transform tool (shortcut: cmd/ctrl T).

In most cases, your texture may be in colour; I like to first adjust it to black and white, ensuring it doesn’t give me unwanted colour casts.

Once you’ve placed the texture, you can play with different blend modes; I mainly use Overlay, Soft Light, and Multiply.

Also, adjust the texture’s opacity to make it more transparent.

I recommend always keeping it a bit lower than you think, so the texture doesn’t look too artificial.

Masking out Texture

Next, you don’t have to keep the texture in all areas of your photograph:

For example, I always remove it from the eyes and skin of a portrait.

You can do this by adding a layer mask to the texture layer, then masking the texture with the Brush tool set to black.

If you need help with adding textures in Photoshop, check out my full YouTube tutorial below:

Next, let’s talk about painterly Photoshop trick number 3, my favourite: Dodge and Burn.

3. Add Shadows and Highlights with Dodge & Burn

Fine art texture gives your image a more tactile quality; dodging and burning, in turn, gives it more shape and dimension.

What is Dodge and Burn?

With dodge and burn, you’re basically sculpting light like a painter, adding shadows and highlights in specific areas. 

This technique is not only used in traditional darkroom photography, but also in painting and drawing.

Have a look at this classical painting by Géricault with strong highlights and shadows:

Painting by Théodore Géricault. Image credit: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

This painting is a prime example of sculpting shapes through light:

You can see a lot of contrast, achieved by strong highlights on the left side and pronounced shadows on the right side of the figure.

Now look at this self portrait I took recently:

It originally was quite evenly lit, but I added “fake” highgliths and shadows to make it look more 3D and painterly (especially on cheek, nose, hair bun and collarbone area):

How to do Dodge and Burn in Photoshop

There are many different methods for dodging and burning in Photoshop.

I have tried most of them and find that the best and easiest method is using the Brush tool on a neutral grey layer:

Create a 50% grey layer set to Soft Light blend mode.

(Layer – New – Layer – Mode Soft Light – Fill with 50% grey). 

Then, use a soft brush set to low opacity (somewhere around 5–10%).

Now, use the Brush tool in white to add highlights (dodging).

In turn, use the brush set to black to add or intensify shadows in the image (burn).

Where to Add Highlights and Shadows

If you’re not sure where to add highlights and shadows, look at classical paintings, e.g. by Rembrandt or Caravaggio.

Typically, the subject’s face, hands, nose bridge/tip, and shoulders/collarbones will have stronger highlights.

Conversely, areas under the jawline, beneath hair edges, or around clothing folds are usually darker.

Enhancing that contrast creates a more three-dimensional and dramatic look.

Painting by Caravaggio displaying strong shadows and highlights. Image credit: CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

For still life or landscape shots, you can enhance directional light using dodge and burn, e.g., areas where the sunlight catches the edges of flowers or leaves.

Dodge and burn is also great if you want to composite elements together into one scene, as you can change the lighting by making whole areas brighter or darker.

If you want to see the painterly Photoshop Dodge and Burn method in action, check out my YouTube tutorial below:

Before I get to the next painterly Photoshop tip, did you know you can download my free ebook? More info below:

…but now, back to the blog post!

4. Use the Mixer Brush for Painterly Strokes

The Mixer Brush is a fantastic tool for giving your photos that painted-by-hand look. 

It doesn’t just add colour or smudge, but actually blends tones and textures the way a real paintbrush would.

How to Use the Mixer Brush

Start by selecting the Mixer Brush Tool (it’s in the same menu as the regular Brush in the toolbar). 

In the options bar, turn off “Load Solid Colour” and enable “Clean Brush After Each Stroke.” 

This keeps the digital paint “clean”, meaning you don’t introduce new colours but only mix the existing ones. 

Choose a soft, round brush tip with a light texture.

It also helps to lower the Wet and Flow settings so that the strokes are smooth rather than streaky.

Now, lightly drag the brush along areas where edges feel too sharp or “digital.”, e.g. along hairlines or skin transitions. The method also works great for softening backgrounds.

You’ll want to move the brush in gentle, curved motions that follow the natural flow of the subject, just like a real brushstroke would. 

You’re not trying to smudge the colours, but rather to make the image look soft and painted.

Tip: Use a separate duplicate layer for your Mixer Brush work. 

That way, you can lower the opacity or mask out areas if you go overboard.

5. Colour Grading with Gradient Maps or Selective Colour

Finally, let’s talk about colour grading–your secret weapon when it comes to painterly Photoshop editing.

Why is Colour Grading Important for Painterly Photoshop Effects?

Think about great paintings:

One of their common characteristics is a unified palette, i.e. colours that feel like they belong together. 

Painters deliberately choose their colour palette in order to create a specific mood, e.g. warm and nostalgic, cool and mysterious, or moody and dramatic. 

In photography, lighting doesn’t always turn out as you want it, as it depends on the lighting conditions and the digital sensor.

In addition, you may want to intentionally alter the colours of an image to create a specific aesthetic.

Photoshop has lots of different tools for colour grading; two of the most powerful ones are Gradient Maps and Selective Colour.

A self-portrait that I heavily colour graded to achieve the desired aesthetic.

Gradient Maps

Gradient Maps is a really handy colour grading tool for changing the overall colours of your image.

It enables you to map your image’s highlights, midtones, and shadows to specific colours of your choice. 

For example, you could choose a warm beige for highlights, a muted olive for midtones, and a deep warm brown for shadows, which will instantly give your photo that classic painter’s look. 

Once you have applied the Gradient Map, you can change the layer’s blend mode to Soft Light or Colour, and lower the opacity to reduce the effect. 

Selective Colour

Selective Colour differs from Gradient Map in that you can control each hue individually:

Using the sliders, you can adjust how much cyan, magenta, yellow, or black appears within each colour range. 

I use this a lot for making skin porcelain white (by adjusting only reds and yellows), to colour correct, or to change the colour of objects. 

Other Colour Grading Tools

Another tool I use A LOT is Color Lookup (LUTs) to fine-tune the overall colours of an image.

The tool contains different colour presets, e.g. sunset, moonlight, or different Kodak and Fuji film looks.

I often layer a few of these at low opacities to really pull the look of my image together.

Next, I like using Hue/Saturation for colour grading:

This tool is great if you want to completely change the colour of something, e.g. from red to green, or if you want to adjust the lightness and saturation of specific colours.

If you want to learn more about colour grading, you can read my previous post on the topic here:

Photo Colour Grading: Everything You Need to Know

If you prefer watching a tutorial, you can check out one of my YouTube videos where I demonstrate most of the above colour grading tools in action:

And that’s it for today!

Which of these painterly Photoshop tips did you find the most helpful? Let me know in the comments!