Vector image from a photo

Does anyone know how to create a vector image in PhotoShop CS, I know there is a tool in Illustrator, but I'd love an easy <read quick and simple> way to do it in PS, I've tried polarize and then many of the filters, I'm sure there's a process or follow these steps type of answer (well I'm hoping!)

Thanks

Here's an example of the finished quality I'd like, oh and I have 975 photos to do...

 

Can you add the step to convert the photo to vector..

 

As far as I know in photoshop the only way to do it with any decent results is to pen trace and convert that to a vector shape.

 

thanks jestep... that's what I thought, but I was hoping for a miracle fix

 

You can't create vector images in photoshop but you can draw better than vector images with pen tool. Vector images are preferred for future enlargements. Photshop images when enlarged more than its original size it will get pixelated. Practice with pen tool and by making use of layer technique you can create any type of drawings to beat vector output images.

 

There is an automatic program out there. I've used it before.... but that was at like 7 years ago when Photoshop was Version 2.0. I can't remember what the vector convertor was called but I believe it was published by Adobe as well. I don't think it will get to the finished quality you're after without some manual post processing and it depends on how clean the source bitmap is as well.

 

I believe that XAOS Tools still produce a plugin for this very job, search google, I think its called Segmation.

Good luck

 

There are a bunch of tutorials here: http://www.vexels.net/tutorials.php
There are no filters that will give you perfect results like your example but there are some that will give you something similar (though nowhere near as good).
In Photoshop you can try image>adjustments>posterize or filter > artistic > cutout
In flash you can try importing the photo and then trace bitmap
In illustrator I think there is a function called live trace but I've never tried that one myself

 

thanks ramakrishna - yes I'm familiar with the pen tool too - just don't want to do that for 900 photos

hello MrHoff - I went searching and found something by algolab, I've downloaded it, but not played yet thanks for the tip.

Thanks Tam - will have a look for this plugin - that's sounding close

Hi Fdlinda... hmmm yes, you mean I actually have to do some of the work myself!... I will try that combination however - maybe that's the magic one!

Thanks guys

 

Hi loress,
If is there any easy and quick way (I mean any software) to convert photos in to vector images please let me also known. The technique may very helpful to me. Iam wasting lot of time to convert images manually in to vector. Please share your experience.
Regards
Ramakrishna

 

There's a trace tool in illustrator, but it's worthless. No available software will do the job to the standard of the example, as it's general designed for much simpler objects.

The cutout filter in photoshop could give you a clumsy approximation, but would only output things that look like vectors, not actual vectors.

The sad truth is, a vector to that standard can only be achieved by manual tracing, or creation from scratch.

 

Corel Trace - included with Corel Draw - at least up until version 11 - not sure about now, will do it.

It will export to a number of vector formats, although with my first attempts at playing around with it, the results are far from what you show above.

 

thanks lucid and nevet, the more I delve into this the more obvious it becomes that this is a painstakingly laborious task

 

Post a picture that you want traced and I'll show you what Corel Trace can do with it.

It did a horrible job on the wedding cake I gave it, but there was a lot of color in the picture. I just tried with your above gif file and it produced almost an exact match.

I guess it depends on what the source is.

There are a few different options with Corel Trace that make it a pretty impressive program. I haven't had much of a use for it in the past, but I've always been pretty impressed with it.