CONVERT photos to ART Hidden Photoshop AI Features

How to turn photos into watercolor, oil paintings and change the style to art deco, steampunk and more using Generative AI. Colin SMith shows you how to go outside the box with generative fill in Photoshop and create realistic looking fine art from photos.
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#Photoshop #ai #generativefill #painting

[@photoshopcafe]

See written steps here. Answered problems some people are having with the tutorial: photoshopcafe.com/revealing-hidden-features-in-photoshop-generative-fill-to-convert-photos-to-art-and-more/

[@liverpoolpictorial]

Thanks, Colin👍

[@BubbleGendut]

TK has a free Gen Fill panel that speeds up the density selections plus other shortcuts

[@fredrosenbaum8630]

Wow! Thank you! This is easily worth some serious case but Tony is giving it away. Thanks for the pointer.

[@amirfirdaus3889]

what is TK

[@BubbleGendut]

@@amirfirdaus3889 Tony Kuyper his TK9 photoshop plugin & Gen fill panels

[@waldoh0027]

wow, thank you and thank you for the written steps!

[@Yurok22]

wow!! super can't wait to try this out thank you so much

[@photoshopcafe]

have fun

[@augustopadilla6656]

Keep up your great work. You are my fave person to watch to learn new features in Photoshop. Thanks for taking the time to share what you know, very much appreciated.

[@photoshopcafe]

Glad to help!

[@bala1000mina]

Awesome tutorial as always! Thank you so much Colin for the very informative tutorial! Good luck!

[@thebigfan217]

Love this tutorial. Thanks, Colin!

[@jamilgotcher365]

Thank you for showing us these Gen fill techniques! The images would look so nice printed for a canvas wall art.

[@liverpoolpictorial]

That's brilliant, Colin. Thank you. Up to 04:50 I was smugly thinking to myself "tell me something I don't know..." and then you hit me with the Firefly connection LOL!👍

[@photoshopcafe]

Oh yeah, the good stuff is in part 2 :)

[@richardbender3784]

This is exactly what I like to do with photograph experimentation. Thanks loads

[@rczuczor]

Thanks Colin!! Your tutorials are so wonderful and makes my job so much easier!! Thank you and happy holidays!

[@photoshopcafe]

You're very welcome!

[@leewoodford9647]

Thank you for explaining this Colin, I had good watercolor results on a close portrait using 33% mask brightness

[@jzwadlo]

This is an absolutely AWESOME use of GENFILL! Bravo!

[@photoshopcafe]

Thanks

[@StoryartAu]

Brilliant Colin!

[@orcaspest]

Thank you Colin!! This was very informative. 👍

[@photoshopcafe]

Glad it was helpful!

[@iqueque]

Definitely worth a play on a rainy day

[@photoshopcafe]

I'd say so

[@kekmagician5412]

just amazing

[@stevelanier9715]

WOW! Just wow. I love this.

[@photoshopcafe]

Glad you like it

[@Ethan_Philip19]

This information is invaluable. Amazing work!

[@photoshopcafe]

Happy it's helpful

[@TrevorDennis100]

You've worked all this out by experimenting? That's really impressive. I loved how the Ai was using different street lamp posts to generate each theme.

[@photoshopcafe]

I knew about the 40% density. Everything after that was just from playing around and trying different things. I often start with an idea and then see how far I can push it. Its fun!

[@SpencerPhotography]

Always the best, bro!!!

[@photoshopcafe]

Thanks

[@RadAlzyoud]

An excellent trick/tip. 🙏

[@photoshopcafe]

Glad you like it

[@alkrevit4755]

Colin, nice find!

[@photoshopcafe]

Thanks, I think so too :)

[@ednsb]

you keep finding new gifts inside Photoshop that others arent seeing.. thank you

[@photoshopcafe]

Thanks! Although some youtubers do copy me and don't give me credit ;)

[@rajeshasthana5165]

great thank you

[@rodrigoundaa]

as usual one of the best ps channels. Thanks mr. Janitor!

[@veselinvasilev9362]

Thank you!

[@martingillick60]

Very good👏

[@photoshopcafe]

THX

[@photonsonpixels]

Great tutorial Colin. I find it interesting that you need to vary the strength of the selection depending on the output style you are looking for; ie only 7% for watercolor but 20% for pencil sketch and up to 40% for other commands like Art Deco. Can you explain why that is? Second question: I assume that you can do this on a high resolution image regardless of the low resolution Generative AI produces given that it is only an overlay that you are adding to the original image. Is this assumption correct? Thank you!

[@photoshopcafe]

You need to experiment with different settings. They will all work on any setting, just produces different results. I'm still experimenting, so these are just suggestions, so that I could show you how density affects the result. Part 2, the answer is yes.

[@photonsonpixels]

@@photoshopcafe Thanks, Colin!

[@LW-wf7jk]

I have followed the directions to a T. Have tried different photos as well, however, the only ones that I can't get to work as well are house photos. No matter what I change it to (97) with selected areas chosen, the details do not generate. Any ideas for different settings would be appreciated!! Thanks for a great video!

[@MrAnthonydawson]

Great video. Is it not possible (and easier) to select your selection opacity within the dialog box when you press ‘shift backspace’ to fill?

[@photoshopcafe]

Yes, this works too, good suggestion

[@royceahr]

Very interesting, worth playing with.

[@photoshopcafe]

Thanks

[@royceahr]

I got hung up on the Quick Mask Options settings so thanks for the clarificaiton

[@MarciaFunebre]

Thanks for this helpful demonstration. I'd like to know more about how these generative procedures will work on increasingly higher resolution images. I know that generative fill soon starts showing issues (blurry material) when extending images that are high-res (I work with images between 4000 and 20.000 pixel on one side), something like this may be different - or simply more forgiving but I would like to know more about it. What resolutions can it really work with and when does it start faking it?

[@photoshopcafe]

The resolution is the same as other gen fill tasks

[@MarciaFunebre]

@@photoshopcafe do you know what that resolution limitation is? I know all of AI is still stuck in postal stamp size mentality which of course I hope will change over time.

[@coelisanctus]

I'm glad you included written steps on your site, because I got utterly lost here.

[@photoshopcafe]

Make sure your mask preference is set to selected areas and it will work as shown on written steps in pinned comment

[@hadinavidtube]

Great!

[@kennethfoster5301]

Very thoughtful as usual thanks for sharing

[@photoshopcafe]

Thanks

[@Vicente_Caraiba]

Thank you.

[@kellychamberlain8456]

Had another go at this. Double checking, triple checking settings. I still get garbage, no where near what this video shows. But I did discover that image size makes a difference. A huge difference. If I crop out just the head of a portrait I get much closer to this video sample. The larger the image the greater the garbage. Now I'm suspicious that system variables may also make a difference. CPU, GPU, Mac vs Windows? But I can't test that. Also, I noticed that the FG/BG color settings are a "sticky" for Quickmask. So, if you set "density" BEFORE you enter Quickmask, you may get different values AFTER you enter Quickmask. So, it's critical to set the density after entering Quickmask.

[@photoshopcafe]

Make sure your mask preference is set to selected areas and it will work as shown on written steps in pinned comment

[@kellychamberlain8456]

Thanks for replying. When I said "double, triple checked settings," that included mask prefs. I think there is something we are yet to understand about Gen Fill and the variables involved. May I suggest... give us a link to download the image you used in the video (both before and after). We could then process it on different systems to see if we get the same result. @@photoshopcafe

[@reefhugger100]

Hi@@kellychamberlain8456 After trying this for HOURS I discovered on Windows to hit the delete key, not the backspace key.

[@bass6051]

This is so amazing- one problem for me - - @ 0:44 I keep getting the visible marching ants around the image at this step. And I'm not getting the results - it's just showing up as a random watercolor painting when I do the "watercolor" generate image command. What could I be doing wrong? I've even slowed the video down at 75% and tried about 20 more times. The photoshop is updated and the most current version. Thanks so much! 😭😭

[@paulhusband9002]

me too

[@haimiah]

Same here, got it to work once out of a dozen. Every other time I’ve had marching ants ??

[@haimiah]

Follow up! Found the fix, double click the quick mask tool, change from Masked Areas to Selected Areas 🎉🎉

[@photoshopcafe]

enter the opposite settings or change quickmask mode. Its at the beginning of the written steps

[@Photojouralist123]

I took a class from you many years ago. Aren't you originally from NZ? I met you in Montana

[@photoshopcafe]

Oh wow. That must have been at Rocky Mountain School Of Photography?

[@ricardo.duran.cuellar]

Hola... solo escribo español. Espero puedas comprenderme. Gracias por el tutorial. He querido seguir tu tutorial, pero estoy algo confundido. No sé en qué momento creaste un Layer 1. Por otro lado para el segundo intento, el que muestras en el 1:36 mas o menos del video, no veo que te salga el caminito de hormigas y eso que en brillo le pusistes 93%. Yo le he puesto eso mismo y me sale el caminito de hormigas. Primero pensé que era por mi fondo. En mi primer intento el fondo de la modelo que usé era un color solido de rosadito bajo. No me funcionó porque al salir de mascara rapida y haber puesto el brillo en 93, me sale el camino de hormigas y al generar y escribir watercolor, me sale una mancha sin ningun aspecto. Intenté con una segunda imagen, esta vez la modelo tenia el fondo blanco como en tu imagen, pero igual sale el camino de hormigas, no así como cuando seguí tu primer ejemplo y habias puesto 40% en Brillo. No sé por qué a ti no te sale el camino de hormigas al usar el 93%. Lo que hice mientras espero tu respuesta, fue usar un valor en B: de 40% en vez de 60% y fue mas real el watercolor. Tú la primera lo hicites con B:60% y el segundo con B:93% y no te sale el camino de hormigas y te funciono muy real, a mi solo me funcionó la primera como a ti con B:60%, pero el segundo le puse B:40% y salió mas real. Puedes ayudarme con mi duda? Gracias.

[@FotomakerAcademy]

You won't see marching ants if the density value is less than 50%. Because you are using close to 100% you see marching ants. Do you have your Quick Mask set to show Mask or Selection?

[@theboatgoat]

This isn't working for me, ive noticed that the quick mack, setting density and filling, then pressing Q again that it creates a selection around the entire canvas on mine, but it desnt seem to do this on yours...

[@TheWenlock]

game changer

[@rickpinelli1586]

I use Corel Paint for painting my photography works.

[@photoshopcafe]

Nice, I remember that. I used it years ago

[@kellychamberlain8456]

Does not work for me on Win11. On a face on portrait, at 2% to 7% I still get way too much distortion. Facial features are completely changed, no resemblance to the original. In your video, at your first Gen Fill step, a mysterious Layer 1 appears with no explanation. What is that? What mode is it in? Does it make a difference? Also, does image size make a difference? Your sample is 4450, mine is 6720.

[@cityboy24]

I had the same issue. Ignore the bit about "if you want a brightness of 7% then enter brightness 93%" and just enter 7% brightness. That worked. Don't know if it's a Mac vs PC thing, but I couldn't get it to work his way. Perhaps he'll illuminate.

[@brucefulton]

Ditto. Am experimenting...

[@photoshopcafe]

I created the blank layer and then realized I didn't need it, so it doesn't have any effect, its not needed.

[@photoshopcafe]

It depends if you have color indicator set to mask or selected. 2:18

[@photoshopcafe]

Please see the written steps pinned comment. It depends what your quick mask option is set to, explained in the written)

[@user-sm3dy5se9p]

I love this, however, when I was watching Howard Pinsky, he simply added an alpha channel of 40% and then could generate a watercolor and then an oil painting without quick mask mode. Is that a process you looked at?

[@photoshopcafe]

An alpha channel and quick mask are the same thing. Quick mask is a temporary alpha channel.

[@JuJuGrafiks]

Noticed your color palette isn't set to default black/white. So did you start with 40% grey?

[@photoshopcafe]

It doesn't matter. The foreground settings in Quick mask are all that matters. And yes, I had already been playing around so I didn't have black white to start. Also masks don't recognize color, only brightness, so color settings don't matter

[@MrDan1943]

I just tried using the "reverse of your numbers" so for 10 I need to type 10 and not 90!!!!

[@photoshopcafe]

As I mentioned in another comment it depends when your quickmask mode is set to. I have numbers for default settings

[@MrDan1943]

I never used the quick mask before. I went to a video of that too; and saw both settings!!!! Your setting looks better than the default so I am changing that even though I don't use the tool!!! Thanks for the great videos@@photoshopcafe

[@parksteelsfc]

Is there a reaseon why this tutorial won't work in the latest Beta version

[@spaggtrait1608]

So I follow these steps, but once I apply a generative fill, it just replaces my picture completely with some random AI trash 😀 Okay, the written instructions cleared this up for me in case anyone else is having this issue, it's in the written instructions.

[@wilhelmvongloeden]

Doesn't quite work for portraits, does it?

[@agness69ful]

it is not working for me, no clue what different set up I have. It is making a spot of paint not taking the picture as a base.

[@photoshopcafe]

Use opposite settings for mask density

[@yaeckerphotography]

It does not work for me. I just get a random watercolor overlay from the generative fill blocking out the original image. Followed all your steps.

[@photoshopcafe]

See written steps

[@yaeckerphotography]

@@photoshopcafestill does not work. It renders a generative fill layer of a random watercolor image not based on my image.

[@yaeckerphotography]

@@photoshopcafe I also noticed you had three separate layers, when I do the image I start with the background layer and end up with the background layer, and the generative fill layer with a random WC image. You have an extra layer one in between those two called “layer 1” What’s that about?

[@photoshopcafe]

Make sure your mask preference is set to selected areas and it will work as shown on written steps in pinned comment

[@PerBirkhaug]

tried following these instructions, doesn't work. Only produces an image that has nothing to do with the original. Guess I must be doing something wrong, but can't figure out what.

[@photoshopcafe]

Try lowering your density

[@photoshopcafe]

Please see the written steps pinned comment. It depends what your quick mask option is set to, explained in the written)

[@voyowee]

Great tip but for some reason I'm getting some poor results, feels like I'm cursed lol

[@photoshopcafe]

Please see the written steps pinned comment. It depends what your quick mask option is set to, explained in the written)

[@voyowee]

@@photoshopcafe Thanks, I was doing that correctly, I think my issue is that faces get dramatically altered independent of any watercolor or other effect. I'll keep tinkering.

[@MrDan1943]

not working for me at all. I am using 50meg images and getting flowers instead of the subject!!!!

[@photoshopcafe]

Please see the written steps pinned comment. It depends what your quick mask option is set to, explained in the written)

[@MrDan1943]

I this generative watercolor to a few landscapes but with a slight twist. I wanted the subject to be in more detail so I processed at 90% and 95% and masked out the background to show the 90% as the background. Simple and no need to bother with blending the edges

[@stevejarvis186]

Great video, very well explained Colin, but I just cant see any useful application for this in the real world. I still cant see why everyone is getting excited about generative fill, which still produces low resolution images. Once I've converted a photo to a watercolour or a pencil sketch, thats it novelty's gone! Maybe for a laugh with the family on Christmas day!

[@photoshopcafe]

thanks. Some people like these types of effects (A surprisingly large amount)_

[@stevejarvis186]

@photoshopcafe Thanks for answering me. Lots of YT creators don't bother, but you're a top bloke, in my opinion. I assume thousands and thousands use generative fill, but imho, there's no useful way this can be used even using the workaround you came up with and Unmesh from Piximperfect. Gr8 for social media, not so gr8 if you intend blowing the image up to a reasonable size. Keep the gr8 videos coming, Colin, and thank you for all the help you give.

[@johnsmithandthepsychedelic9216]

Tommy Lee Jones really cares about his fans! :)

[@photoshopcafe]

lol yes he does

[@anderswinkler34]

Marcus & Martinus are a couple of copies of you.

[@SteveSSBB]

Hmmm. No matter what I do I keep getting an AI generation over the entire frame - not just my selection. I'm not sure where I went wrong.

[@photoshopcafe]

Please see the written steps pinned comment. It depends what your quick mask option is set to, explained in the written)

[@SteveSSBB]

Hi. Thank you for the reply. I am not sure I expressed myself correctly. I can follow your steps and achieve similar results without issue. I am experiencing problems applying effects to specific selections, however. @@photoshopcafe

[@richsylvester5606]

Sorry I can't get it to work with any consistency. Watched video many times, wrote down steps and referred to video and got mostly junk.

[@photoshopcafe]

Did you look at written steps?

[@photoshopcafe]

Make sure your mask preference is set to selected areas and it will work as shown on written steps in pinned comment

[@richsylvester5606]

@@photoshopcafe Thank you for responding. I did all the steps many times. But where you changed the color density to 93 percent, nothing worked, so I changed it to 7 percent and it seems to work great. Thank you again for so many helpful videos. If it does not work, I will just do it backwards, HAHA!😇

[@photoshopcafe]

@@richsylvester5606 exactly.

[@lisam9233]

Check out her nostrils on the first oil painting example 😂🤣

[@photoshopcafe]

Oh yeah, Gen ai is far from perfect at this point in time

[@felix07ish]

this didn't work for me.

[@GasWorksISO]

A 10 year old point and shoot digital camera can do this in body…

[@photoshopcafe]

Impressive. It doesn't even need a lens.

[@yaeckerphotography]

I’m sorry you must have left out a step. It does not work as shown

[@photoshopcafe]

Use the opposite brightness. Your QM prefs are different. See written steps

[@owenpeller6471]

Horrible confusing presentation

[@FotomakerAcademy]

I don't know about horrible, but I'm confused too... 🤔

[@TrevorDennis100]

Go find the video on the Photoshop Training Channel where Jesus shows a fish with the view partly above, and partly below the waterline. It might be easier to follow how the reduced opacity of the selection works in that video. Colin is doing the same thing, but for the entire canvas, and using it to control the strength of the generated content. Just follow and copy Colin's steps, and you'll soon get it. My only reservation is that Colin has 1000 generative credits per month to play with, and some of the people watching this only have 100 per month.

[@FotomakerAcademy]

@@TrevorDennis100 Okay. B/c Colin talked about using 40% or some lower % (which does make sense) then entered 60% in B. So it didn't seem to match. That's what confuses me. I'll watch Jesus' vid too.

[@photoshopcafe]

@@FotomakerAcademy Black sets the density.100% brightness is 0 black. so 80% brightness (in the B field) is 20% black. Which is 20% density. Does that help? Ill clarify on my written steps on PhotoshopCAFE.com

[@photoshopcafe]

@@TrevorDennis100 They aren't counting Gen Credits on CC accounts until January.