How to achieve this "oil paint effect"? Image attached.

[raczoliver]

<p>Hello All!</p>

<p>I have been trying to achieve this "oil painting" effect with some of my pictures, and I am assuming there is an appropriate filter or something in Photoshop, but I haven't been able to reproduce it. This is my own picture and I made it myself, but in this case it was more an accident that was a combination of the rather poor performance of the Nikon D80 at ISO1600, and a lot of noise reduction in Lightroom.I would like to be able to achieve this effect, but perhaps even stronger, intentionally, at lower ISO settings too. I have access to Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5. Thanks for any input.</p><div></div>

[raczoliver]

<p>Here is a 100% crop where it is much more visible.</p><div></div>

[don_bryant2]

<p>The key to your question is Noise Reduction. Details become smeared. I've actually used this side of effect of Noise Reduction for creative purposes. You can blend versions of the same photo together to get the effect you want.</p>

<p>I suspect you may not be using the current version of LR which has much better NR, but other denoise products can be used.</p>

<p>.</p>

[garrison_k.]

<blockquote>

<p>and I am assuming there is an appropriate filter or something in Photoshop, but I haven't been able to reproduce it.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Which ones have you tried? I assume you have gone Filter/Artisic in PS or downloaded Pixel Bender? Can you link to an image that has the effect that you wish to achieve?</p>

[leicaglow]

<p>A good cheap one can be had from Topaz Labs.</p>

[raczoliver]

<p>Thanks for the help. I think I can get the desired effect with one of the artistic filters, or perhaps multiple layers of them, in Photoshop. Donald, actually that noise reduction was made in Lightroom 3, with the highly improved noise reduction tool. I would hate to see this on all my photos, but in this case I could actually use it for something.</p>

<p>I have mostly been using Photoshop for basic editing and have not really been experimenting a lot with the filters, apart from the unsharp mask. I was trying to replicate this with different blurring filters, but for some reason the "artistic" filters slipped my attention. Thanks for pointing them out. Thanks for the other suggestions too, I might give them a try.</p>

[ernest_warnielius]

<p>Download <em><strong>Gimp</strong></em> https://www.gimp.org/downloads/ its a free and good Photoshop alternative.<br>

(recommended that for a printable image you go to: File/New and then open the 'advanced' options and boost the pixels per inch to 150 or 300.)<br>

Paste whatever photo you want give a painterly effect to.<br>

Then go to Filters/ Artistic/ Oilify and play with sliders.</p><div></div>