Have you seen this new app, Prisma?
It’s an incredibly simple concept, with a beautifully simplistic interface, and we’re loving it. Essentially, the free app for iPhone and iPad allows you to take a photograph, and transform it to look like paintings by famous artists.
The app says it uses a combination of neural networks and artificial intelligence in order to create this effect, and we have been really impressed with how “painterly” these images really appear. It’s pretty cool.
Want to learn other ways to create painterly-style photographs, other than using this app? Sign up to watch the online class, Creating Painterly Photographs with Kathleen Clemmons, on July 20th, 2016. It’s FREE while live, so sign up if you want to learn LOTS of cool creative techniques.
How It Works
Like I said, caveman simple. Either take a photo with your phone, or bring in an existing photo, like this shot of the Bay Bridge at sunset.
The app crops it down to a square size, and then gives you a large range of filters to try
You can export directly into Facebook and Instagram, and you can also simply save the new painting-image back into your phone.
Creative Control
My favorite part about this app, there is still a large amount of creative control. It’s not as simple as inputting your picture, and out pops a piece of art. You get to choose from a variety of painting styles, and then you get to determine the amount that the style is rendered on your photo. You do so by simply sliding your finger from the left to the right across the image.
With this feature, you are able to retain a solid degree of creative input over the final image that is rendered, making you feel like you truly created something new.
As a photographer, the other reason that I love this app, is that the final result is entirely dependent on the image that you choose. If you have a boring image, with no color, dynamic range, or leading lines, the end result won’t be nearly as incredible to look at.
If you capture a cool image, then you are much more likely to produce something amazing. Some of the filters are better for faces/portraits, and some are better for landscapes. That is where you will start having some fun with this Prisma app, in playing with using different style filters for different styles of images.
Unfortunately, this app isn’t yet available for Android phones, but rumors are that it’s in development.
If you do have an iOS device though, try this free app out, and let us know what you think. Or upload your images to Instagram and use the hashtag, #creativelive so we can see them!
Want to learn other ways to create painterly-style photographs, other than using this app? Sign up to watch the online class, Creating Painterly Photographs with Kathleen Clemmons, on July 20th, 2016. It’s FREE while live, so sign up if you want to learn LOTS of cool creative techniques.
