Using The Oil Paint Filter In Adobe Photoshop CS6. Ive written before about using the free Pixel Bender Oil Paint filter for Adobe Photoshop CS5. I just upgraded to Adobe Photoshop CS6 and was ecstatic to find that the Oil Paint filter is now included. Theyve made a few changes to the settings that I both like and dont like. Ive chosen this simple poppy photograph to demonstrate the changes and give you my own secret sauce for using the oil paint filter in combination with a Topaz Labs filter to get the effect that I want. Image with the Photoshop CS6 Oil Paint and Topaz Labs filter. Original image.  The Pixel Bender Filter and Photoshop CS5. The Pixel Bender filter is a free filter that works with Adobe Photoshop CS5. The filter has several effects, but honestly, besides the Oil Paint filter, I didnt see much use for the others. Oil Paint Effect In Pixel Bender Plugin For Photoshop Cs6 Free Download' title='Oil Paint Effect In Pixel Bender Plugin For Photoshop Cs6 Free Download' />I love how the Oil Paint filter enhances details especially on plants and animal fur in a soft, undulating way. I usually added a Topaz Labsfilter to up the detail and contrast. See Combining Textures And Filters In Photoshop For A Painterly Look. As much as I loved the filter, it had a few problems. The interface was finicky and the hardware processing needs were so demanding that I had a very difficult time running it on my 4 year old i. Mac Ive since upgraded my Mac. It got to a point where I never used it because it was so much of a hassle. It was also difficult to see exactly what you were getting in the preview window. The Photoshop CS6 Oil Paint Filter. When I upgraded to Adobe Photoshop CS6 over the weekend, I was thrilled to find that the Oil Paint filter is now a part of Photoshop Ive been playing around with it this week and here are my initial impressions. Im now using the filter on a new, fast i. Mac so I cant compare the processing needs exactly, but overall, it just seems more responsive and the preview is great. UPDATE Since version CS6, the Pixel Bender plugin no longer works in Photoshop. Nevertheless this Oil Paint filter is now included in the plugins directory in the. Oilpaint Effect in Pixel. Pixel Bender plugin for Photoshop CS5 allows users to transform their photographs into images with the visual appearance of oil. Photoshop has made some changes to the Oil Paint effects that I dont much care for though. The New Oil Paint Interface rightThe first difference I noticed is in the Stylization setting. In Pixel Bender, it controlled how swirly the effect was. Now, it goes from a textured, pebbly effect to a swirly effect. I dont much care for the pebbly effect, but I can see how some might like it. Cleanliness tends to mellow out the contrast and intensity of stylization. I usually set this pretty high because I like the swirly look of this filter, but not the pattern of it. The other settings mostly effect the intensity and scale of Stylization and Cleanliness. The Shine setting will give more contrast to the filter, but it will also emphasize the pebbly or swirly texture. Example Stylization low, Cleanliness fairly low, Some Shine. Even when I increase the Stylization and Cleanliness all the way up, if I add any Shine I get this unwanted pattern. Stylization and Cleanliness at 1. Shine 1. If I put the Shine setting to 0, it takes out the pattern, but leaves some of the desired painterly feeling to the image. The effect is easier to see in the images following this one. Stylization and Cleanliness 1. Shine 0. My Secret Sauce. To get the look of the Pixel Bender Oil Paint that I liked, I jack the Stylization and Cleanliness effects up all the way and completely turn off Shine. Quick update Im finding that if I have Shine turned off, I can play with the Cleanliness setting to modify just how soft and swirly the effect is. Depending on the image, a much lower Cleanliness setting may be desirable. Try each extreme of the Cleanliness filter to see which direction works best for your image. Tip Ive found I usually need to increase contrast with a levels adjustment after I run the Oil Paint Filter. Stylization Cleanliness 1. Shine 0, No Topaz Filter. You may find that the Oil Paint filter alone works well for your purposes. I love detail, so I usually add a Topaz LabsFilter. I usually use Topaz Labs Detail 2with the Creative Detail Accent preset. Ive perhaps exaggerated the effect a little here for illustration purposes. You can play with the settings or the opacity of the layer to get the effect you want. Baby Car Seat Laws For Colorado. Oil Paint Filter With Topaz Labs Detail filterTopaz Labs Filters is an affiliate link. I get a small commission from any sales resulting from a click from this site at no extra cost to you. I really do love these filters. Nearly all of my own images use one of these filters. Thanks for supporting the site. Are you using either the Pixel Bender Oil Paint filter or the Photoshop CS6 Oil Paint filter What do you thinkPaint like Van Gogh with Free Adobe Plugin for Photoshop. Photoshop CS5 and CS4. For CS6. how to download this Photoshop Pixel Bender Oil Paint Plugin. Oil Paint Effect In Pixel Bender Plugin For Photoshop Cs6' title='Oil Paint Effect In Pixel Bender Plugin For Photoshop Cs6' />Show us your results on the Facebook page and compare notes. Oil Painting with Pixel Bender. A Post By Helen Bradley. One of the cool new tools from Adobe Labs is Pixel Bender. This free extension lets you apply any one of a series of filters that comes with the extension to your images in Photoshop CS5. But thats not all Adobe also provides a simple interface for Pixel Bender that lets you create your own filters. As a result a community is building around Pixel Bender with users sharing custom created filters with others. In this post Ill show you how to get started with Pixel Bender. You will find the Pixel Bender extension here for download http labs. Make sure to download the version that matches your operating system and your version of Photoshop CS5 3. The extension is an. Adobe Extension Manager. You can install the extension by double clicking on the file to launch the Adobe Extension Manager. If youre using Windows Vista or Windows 7, you should run the Adobe Extension Manager as an Administrator. So, from the Start menu, locate the Adobe Extension Manager entry, right click it and choose Run as Administrator. The reason for this is that the extension needs to be placed in a folder that you can only access if you have administrator privileges. If you launched the program manually choose File Install Extension and locate and select the extension that you just downloaded. Accept the license terms and the extension will be automatically installed inside the appropriate Photoshop CS5 program folder. When youre done, close the Extension Manager, close Photoshop and reopen it. Pixel Bender wont work on images larger than 4. If desired, you can convert an image to a Smart Object before applying a filter. To run Pixel Bender open an image and choose Filter Pixel Bender Pixel Bender Gallery. Youll see a list of filters in the dropdown list which currently displays Circle. Splash. Select the Oil. Paint filter and then adjust its settings. Using Stylization, you can adjust the length and bend of the brush strokes the larger values look best. Cleanliness will adjust the smoothness of the effect and typically looks good at around 7 or 8. Colorization allows you to apply more or less color to the image. Brush. Scale changes the size and length of the darker brush strokes a small value gives thin long lighter brush strokes and a larger value gives shorter thick very dark brush strokes. Brush. Contrast will adjust the contrast of the brush strokes and is probably better left at a value approaching 1. In short, adjust the sliders until you get a result you like. If you are unsure how a slider is affecting the image drag it all the way to the left or right to see the effect. Then adjust from there. When youre done, click Ok to apply the result to the image. Unlike most filters which convert images to look like an oil painting, this one does well at identifying edges in the image so the painting looks more realistic. Want more Photoshop tutorials like this Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter.