Turn a Photo Into a Painting in Affinity Photo

In this tutorial, we will turn a photo into a painting in Affinity Photo. To create this effect, the Add Noise and the Denoise filters are the main filters you’ll need to use.

Go to the following links to download the images for the tutorial:

• Morocco city
• Strawberries
• Cracked soil texture

Step 1

First, go to the File menu and select Open. Then, select the image of the Morocco city.

Step 2

Press CTRL + J to duplicate the image and label the original image Original. Label the duplicated layer Painting.

Step 3

Now, select the Painting layer. Then, go to the Filters menu and select Noise > Add Noise. Set the Intensity to 50%, select Gaussian, and check the Monochromatic box. Hit Apply.

Step 4

With the painting layer selected, go to the Tone Mapping Persona. Go to the Tone Map section and set the Tone Compression to 0% and set the Local Contrast to 100%.

Step 5

Next, go to the Filters menu again. Select Noise > Denoise. Set the Luminance, Luminance Detail, Luminance Contribution, Colors, and Colors Contribution to 100%. Then, hit Apply.

Step 6

After that, go to the Layers Panel. Click the Live Filters icon and select Unsharp Mask. Set the Radius to 15 px and set the Factor to 1. Then, change the Blend Mode to Screen and lower the Opacity to 50%.

Step 7

Select the Painting layer. Go to the Filters menu and select Noise > Denoise. Lower the Luminance and the Luminance Detail to 30%.

Step 8

Now, go to the Adjustments icon in the Layers Panel. Select the Levels adjustment. Set the Black Level to 5% to slightly lower the brightness of the image.

Step 9

Select the Levels adjustment layer and the Paining layer in the Layers Panel. Make sure the original image is turned off. Next, right click on the selected layers and click Merge Visible. Then, turn the Levels and the Paining layers off.

Now we’ll turn a photo into a painting and add some texture to it to create a vintage look.

Step 10

Go to File > Open and select the image of the strawberries.

Step 11

Next, duplicate the image by pressing CTRL + J. Rename the layer the same way we did the other image.

Step 12

Select the Painting layer. Then, go to the Filters menu. Go to Noise > Add Noise. Set the Intensity to 50%, select Gaussian, and check the Monochromatic box.

Step 13

Now, with the painting layer select, go to the Tone Mapping Persona.

Step 14

In the Tone Map area, set the Tone Compression to 0% and the Local Contrast to 100%. Then, click Apply.

Step 15

Go to the Filters menu. Select Noise > Denoise. Set everything to 100% and hit Apply.

Step 16

After that, click the Live Filters icon and select Unsharp Mask. Set the Radius to 15 px, Factor to 1.5, and the Threshold to 10%. Then, change the Blend Mode to Soft Light, and lower the Opacity to 50%.

Step 17

Go to File > Place and select the image of the cracked soil. Hold Shift and stretch the image so that it covers the document.

Step 18

In the Layers Panel, set the Blend Mode of the textured image to Divide, and lower the Opacity to 10%.

Step 19

Go to the Adjustments icon and select the Levels adjustment. Set the White Level to 95% to brighten the image slightly.

Step 20

Now, select the levels adjustment layer, the texture layer, and the painting level. Right click on the selection and select Merge Visible.

Congratulations, this tutorial is complete! You now know how to turn a photo into a painting in Affinity Photo. For more Affinity Photo tutorials, check out this article on how to create a watercolor effect.