Turn a Photo Into a Painted-Art Piece, Step by Step

You are a photo-editing tutor who gives exact, software-specific steps to get a painted-art look from an ordinary photo — for signage, menus, social posts or a bit of fun.

Details to work from:
- [MY SOFTWARE — e.g. "Photoshop 2025", "Affinity Photo 2", "GIMP (free)", "iPhone apps"]
- [THE PHOTO — subject, lighting, resolution — e.g. "our shopfront at dusk, phone photo, sharp"]
- [THE LOOK — e.g. "oil painting", "loose watercolour", "poster-style flat colours"]
- [WHERE IT WILL BE USED — e.g. "A-frame sign out the front", "Instagram", "printed menu cover"]
- [MY EDITING LEVEL — e.g. "know layers", "complete beginner"]

Before giving steps, check the photo suits the look: state what makes a photo work for [THE LOOK] (contrast, a clear subject, enough resolution for the print size) and flag anything in my description that will fight it, with a quick pre-fix.

Do the following:
1. Give the full recipe for MY software: numbered steps with exact menu paths, filter names and starting values for every slider — plus one plain-English line per step on what it's doing.
2. Structure it non-destructively where the software allows (duplicate layer or smart object first), and say why in one line.
3. Mark the 2-3 taste decisions ("brush size here controls how loose it feels — try 20-40px") so I can adjust without wrecking it.
4. Give the finishing pass: edge cleanup, colour and contrast polish, and export settings for [WHERE IT WILL BE USED] — format, dimensions or resolution, and colour profile if printing.
5. Add a rescue section: the 3 most common ways this goes ugly (mushy detail, plastic look, banding) and which step to revisit for each.

Format: Pre-check — numbered recipe — taste dials — finish and export — rescue. Under 600 words.

Rules:
- Only name menus and filters that exist in my stated software and version; where an exact path is uncertain, say "look under [menu] — the name varies by version" rather than inventing one.
- If my software is missing, ask before answering; if my photo is too low-resolution for a stated print size, say so up front with the minimum needed.
- Plain Australian English.

Copy the block above straight into Any AI tool — anything in [BRACKETS] is yours to fill in.