I love combining a photograph, a texture, and the Topaz Labs Impression Filter to create a digital painting.

Combining a rose photo, a texture and the Impressions filter.

The Original Photograph

Usually, when I create textured florals, they are photographed in the studio with a plain background which will make it easier to apply a texture (when you want the texture to be the background). In this exception, I couldn’t help selecting these roses that I photographed in the gardens of the Château du Rivau in the Loire Valley (Love this château!). I took this photograph a number of years ago so back then I was using a Canon 40D. I think I just used the kit 28-135mm lens for this macro.

With A Texture

Because I wanted to cover up the background leaves, the texture was used in Normal Blend Mode in Photoshop. A layer mask allowed me to cover the background and also softly cover the flower a little so it blends into the background. See image below.

I chose the texture Autumn Glow from the Autumn Rain watercolor texture collection. (Note – at one point, this was a free texture, so check to see if you have that texture).

Topaz Labs Impression Filter

I love, love, love the *Topaz Labs Impression Filter! Adding a painted texture to your photograph already takes your image to a more artistic expression and the Topaz Filter unifies the photograph and texture.

The *Impression filter is now part of the *Topaz Labs Studio which works as either a stand alone program or through Photoshop and Lightroom. While it looks like Studio has interesting features, personally I won’t be abandoning my Lightroom / Photoshop workflow. I prefer to access it through Photoshop.

The flower in its 3 stages

  1. Original rose photographed in garden with green leafy background.
  2. Rose with a watercolor texture. Autumn Rain watercolor texture collection.
  3. Textured photograph with the *Topaz Labs Impression Filter. I chose the Impressionistic / Impasto preset.

Rose photograph before and after

Here’s another subtler version with the Impressionistic / Renoir setting

Texured rosed with Topaz Labs Impression Renoir filter.

*Topaz 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. Thank you for supporting the site!

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Leslie Nicole
Leslie Nicole

American Photographer and Designer living in France with my French husband, 2 Weimaraners and Cat Rescues. Camera, Mac, studio, garden.