This post covered how to add wave effects to text. You can also add wave effects photos in Paint.NET. With Paint.NET’s SinWaves plug-in you can add waves to images.

Save the plug-in’s ZIP from this page. Click Here is the DLL to save the SinWaves ZIP, which you can then extract by right-clicking the file and selecting Extract All. Extract this plug-in to Paint.NET’s Effects folder. Then run Paint.NET, select Effects > Distort and SinWaves to open the window below.

The Amplitude bar at the top of the window effectively adjusts the wave’s amplitude. It’s probably best to leave this bar at lower values closer to the middle. Dragging it to the far left and right will have more impact on the image’s clarity.

Below that you have Horizontal period and Vertical period bars. You can drag those bars left and right to effectively alter the number of waves on the image. With those options you can combine horizontal and vertical effects.

Below is an example of the output you can get with the add-on. There I’ve added a wave effect to the flag to make it seems as if the picture was taken on a more blustery day. The first photo is the original and the second is the same image edited with the SinWave effect. Note that I’ve also cropped out the borders to remove the wave effect from them.

So SinWaves gives you a great way to add waves to your photos. It might come in handy for adding waves to pictures with water in them. It’s also included in the Magical Plug-ins pack that you can add to Paint.NET from this forum page.