Quick Looks: one-click photo styles in Paint by Zaweba

Not every edit needs curves and masks. Sometimes you want a photo to look old, or warm, or like a sketch, and you want it now. Quick Looks in Paint by Zaweba are one-click looks with live thumbnails, so you can see what each one does to your own picture before choosing.

Open them from View > Panels > Quick Looks for a panel that stays open, or from Image > Quick Looks.

The built-in looks

There are 28, in four groups.

Classic covers Sepia, Black & White, High-contrast, Soft and Infrared B&W. These are the timeless treatments, good for portraits and street photos.

Colour holds Warm, Cool, Vivid, Muted, Faded film, Cross-process, Teal & orange and Bleach bypass. These change the mood of a picture through its colours. Teal & orange is the familiar film poster look; Bleach bypass gives a gritty, low saturation, high contrast feel.

Vintage brings Old photo, Polaroid-style, Cyanotype, Selenium and Split tone. Cyanotype turns a picture into the blue of old blueprints; Selenium and Split tone are classic darkroom toning effects.

Effects is the wider group: Vignette, Soft glow, Sketch, Oil paint, Posterised, Duotone, Solarised, Poster edges, Film grain and Light leak. Some are subtle finishing touches, like Vignette and Film grain. Others turn a photo into something more like an illustration.

Trying and applying

Each look shows a live thumbnail of your picture. Hover over a look and the canvas previews it. Nothing is applied until you choose.

An intensity slider lets you dial a look back. Many looks are at their best partly applied: a hint of Faded film rather than the full effect, or a light Vignette.

You can apply a look to the current layer, to the whole image or to a selection. Applying to a selection lets you, say, put Black & White on the background and keep the subject in colour. There's also an option to keep the look editable, so you can come back and change it.

When Quick Looks make sense

Social posts and quick shares are the obvious use. Open, pick a look, adjust the intensity, export.

They're also a good starting point for a bigger edit. Apply a look as editable, then refine with the full adjustments. If Teal & orange is close but the skin is too orange, the adjustment tools let you fix just that.

And they're useful for exploring. Running the pointer over the thumbnails is a fast way to see what a photo could become, which can spark an idea you wouldn't have reached through sliders.

Using looks with restraint

Lower the intensity. Most looks are designed to be noticeable at full strength, which is often too much for a finished picture.

Use the editable option when you're not sure. It costs nothing and keeps the decision open.

Combine with a selection for local effects. A look on the sky alone or the background alone can be more striking than on the whole frame.

Too much of a good look

Stacking several strong looks quickly makes a muddy picture. Pick one, adjust it, and add a second only with a clear reason.

Applying to the wrong target is the other. If only part of the picture changed, check whether a selection was active or whether you chose this layer instead of the whole image.

Quick Looks sit at the friendly end of Paint by Zaweba. They're for quick results, but they're built on the same adjustments as the rest of the app, so nothing you start with them is a dead end.