Customer Reviews

Painter X for Photographers: Creating Painterly Images Step by Step

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Like many of the other reviewers here, I had trouble with the CD, but only with the very end of the first tutorial, which addresses the most fundamental aspects of Painter's tools, i.e., their location and function. I didn't consider this much of a loss because the same subject matter is well covered in the first chapter of the book. (I should probably add that familiarity with Photoshop is a leg-up when learning about Painter X tools.) As for the other tutorials on the CD - they functioned perfectly and are excellent. Martin Addison's demonstrations are straightforward and informative, and his vocal commentary is personable and pleasant.

I love photography, and the digital age has made computerized manipulation of photos almost as much fun as taking the pictures. Adobe Photoshop is indispensable - a powerful, fabulous, wonderful program - but there are painterly effects that I've never been able to achieve with it, which is the reason I became interested Corel Painter. Although fooling around and experimenting with Painter made it obvious that it was an exquisite program, I just couldn't figure out how to make it work for me. Most of the books about using Painter are not structured enough to learn the program "from scratch," probably because most people who buy Painter are artists, intuitive by nature and already familiar with the elements of painting and drawing. I am not an artist. I can do primitive sketches, and I have a decent eye for color and compostion, but that's where my skill level ends. This book is perfect for me. Mr. Addison explains and demonstrates Painter X's functions in a structured enough way to help people like me learn the basics of the program, and after no more than a few short hours of practice, I've already begun to see some of Painter X's possibilities that artists probably sense immediately. Thanks to the organized approach of this book,I know without doubt that I'm going to have more fun than ever enhancing and manipulating my photographs. (An aside: I've enjoyed every Focal Press book I've ever bought. They're beautifully executed and have proved so useful that I've dog-eared most of them.)

I'm not giving "Painter X for Photographers" 5 stars because of the glitch in the CD, but for anyone who wants to de-mystify Painter X and use it to transform photographs into artistic renderings, this book is a great place to start.

This is an excellent book for those just starting to use Painter. Even if you are not a photographer or are not interested in creating images from photography, this book will introduce you to the basic functions of Painter in a clear and concise manner. Thank you, Mr. Addison.

Extremely well illustrated and explained Painter techniques and methods. A lot of inspiration and step by step guidence between these pages. I will be refering to it often. The included DVD popped right up on my PC and the tutorials ran fine. The videos are well made and informative even if they don't have the energy and charm of Jeremy Sutton's presentations.

I'm a semi-professional art photographer who recently purchased Corel Painter X. The tutorials provided with the software are helpful but I've found that it is hard to beat a good book on a subject for quickly getting up to speed. For what I do as an art photographer, Martin Addison's book really filled that need.

Most computer programs have a learning curve. Painter X has a learning mountain, not a curve, Mr. Addisons explanations are very easy to understand. If you are NEW to photo manipulation programs Painter X is the best, and this book is a must have! This book will save you time and frustration while learning the Painter X program.

Look on the back cover of the book for the author's website. On the site they list several steps you can try to get the DVD to run on a Mac. The second technique worked for me and the tutorial movies played perfectly. The image jpgs were also available. I believe that anyone working their way through all of the lessons in this book will master Painter.

Enormously helpful; well organized; easily understandable. I started from scratch and am amazed. My book is already dog-eared. It's particularly useful because the information is geared toward the geeky photographer mind rather than the hard-core art majors.

This book would be ten times better if it didn't have so many errors. The author gives you images to work through his exercises with, but they don't function as they should. For example, in the chapter on creating a montage, he gives you two images to combine and directs you to turn on tracing paper at one point. Well, the images aren't exactly the same size, so tracing paper was not available. It took me two hours to find that out.

If you want to read about a general overview of Painter's ability's to work with photo's, this is an ok start. But if you're looking for something hand's on, prepare to get frustrated.

This is a truly helpful book if you wish to create a very professional looking painting from a photo but have never painted before. Easy to follow instructions can turn you into a painter in a very short time.Within a week I was astonishing my clients with my new found skills.By combining photos and than painting them I can create a very original painting that has become my trademark in within a month.

As photographers, we're always looking for ways to extend our art and stretch the boundaries of our craft. So it was intriguing when Painter was introduced to us. The thought of transforming our phtography into the world of oils, watercolors, pastels had to be explored - so we bought it. Even if you are experienced and comfortable with applications like Photoshop or Lightroom, Painter will have you scratching your head for a while. Like Photoshop, the initial learning curve is a challenge, but it's a worthwhile journey. "Painter X for Photographers" was a great help. It takes youthrough the process, step by step, suggesting settings and explaining them and makes sense of the workflow. You learn how to work with the brushes to get the results you're looking for and it comes with a DVD loaded with many examples and exercises. To see an example of what can be done with Painter X, go to the following page:
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