Paint.NET - Free Software for Digital Photo Editing

Dave LeGear

Contributing Member
Lifetime Member
Premium Member
City
What's left of Pine Island
State
Florida
For Windows (all the way up to WIN 10) users and I have personally used this program for years even for some quick Web Work editing and very happy with it. You can download it here and yes, it is free (got to love the cost) and actually kept pretty current:

https://www.getpaint.net/index.html

It also has cool conversion feature for Pencil Sketch effect which I use quite often for taking Outdoor pictures and converting them to Pencil for items like Christmas Cards. For that to work well, like it was really drawn by hand, it helps have either a totally clear sky, this or total grey cloud cover so the the end result looks as if you actually had it sketched out on paper by hand ;) Clouds in the background just does not have the same "Hand Drawn" look to them...

Here is an example shot that I took and then reworked for that effect so you can see how that all looks...

DSCN0165.JPG



DSCN0165P.jpg

And you can have a wide range of looks when using this tool, as far as pencil tip size and how dark you can go. I am still learning how to use this tool myself, but one tip I can give you besides the sky conditions, is to "Auto Balance" the picture after or as a last step when you are done working that shot into Pencil. That seems to really help blend in parts of the photo that are now in Black and White for more "depth" and if you don't like that change... Easy enough to just undo the last or all changes in progression, simply by hitting CTRL + Z on your keyboard over and over again.

Hope this helps, and if you are having trouble finding or using that tool in the program. Please feel free to reach out on a PM or drop me a line with your phone number, and would be happy to call and walk you through it ;)

Dave
 
Thanks Dave, giving it a try now...
 
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