Bailey

Exposure Filter

2005-05-24T14:15:24Z

A few people had a question on this over at icon_tutorial and I knew how to do it, so I figured I would write a tutorial in case anyone else had any questions. This is my first tutorial, so if anything isn't clear, please let me know and I'll try to clarify. I assume some level of familiarity with Photoshop, so if you have any questions about where a tool is, let me know. I hope this is helpful!

Go from: to to

First, you need to download the "exposure" filter:

Right click and save as: Exposure Filter. You need to save this file in your Filters directory, which can be found somewhere like: C:/Program Files/Adobe/Photoshop/Plugins/Filters/ (It can vary, so you might have to look around to find the folder!)

If you've already got photoshop open, you'll need to close it and re-open so that it can detect the new filter that you've added.

Okay got that? Now we're ready to begin!

Step 1:

Find an image that you'd like to make an icon out of, I chose this image of Sydney from Alias because it's got a lot of darkness, but there's still the area on her face that's bright, so when we use the exposure filter it will really make her stand out. Thanks to eevee_gurl for the screencap!

Step 2:

After you've opened your image in Photoshop, you should select the area of the image that you'd like for your icon and resize to 100 x 100. I usually use the rectangular marquee and hold down the shift key to force the marquee to form a perfect square and then resize to 100 x 100. Now that we've got the image we'd like for our icon, we need to apply the Exposure filter. It may vary where it's located within the filter menu, but here's a screenshot of where my exposure filter is and hopefully that will help you out!

Step 3:

Apply the exposure filter by sliding the bar to 50. You can play around with the bar and see what different levels of exposure will do, but for my image I chose to set it to 50.

Step 4:

Here's what my image looks like:

That doesn't seem like the contrast is sharp enough, so hit Control + F to reapply the exact same filter again.

Step 5:

That's better!

Step 6:

Now it's time to jazz the icon up a bit. This part is really up to the icon-maker, whatever you think will look best, but I'll go through what I did.

I wanted everything but Sydney's face to be black, so using a small drop shadow round brush at 6px, I covered up that greenish white area next to her... so that everything was black like this:

Step 7:

I like to have multiple images from a scene in my icons because I like the way they look, so I found another picture of Sydney a little bit later in the scene that I thought would go nicely with my icon.

(Capped by eevee_gurl. Thanks again!)

Step 8:

After resizing the image (by specifying a height of 100px), I apply the same exposure filter to this image that I did to my last image so that the two pictures have the same colouring and look. You can just hit Control + F twice (as this will apply the last filter that you've used, and since we haven't used another filter since our exposure, it will do exactly the same thing to this image!) I copy and paste this image as a new layer onto my icon. Right now what I seeis this:

Step 9:

I know that the wall that Sydney's standing next to is going to be covering her face in the other image, so I just delete it all and leave the doorway and Sydney, giving me this:

Step 10:

Now, I make the layer with Sydney's face visible and I have this:

Step 11:

Sydney in the doorframe is covering up her face a little bit, so I nudge the top layer over slightly so that they all blend together well and get this:

Step 12:

Now I flatten the image and I still think I could do more, so I go to Image >> Adjustments >> Color Balance

And apply the following changes to the SHADOW (not highlights or midtones!)

We get this image:

Step 13:

Now, to finish the icon, I think it needs a bit more color, so I add a new layer (Cntrl + Shift + N) and fill the layer with a yellowish peach. Now I set the layer to multiply and voila!

Multifandom Post w/ Lots of Alias

2005-05-20T18:57:39Z

1 28 Days Later
2 Elisabeth Rohm
1 Sarah Michelle Gellar
4 Amelie
4 Lost in Translation (Scarlett Johansson)
1 Life as a House (Hayden Christensen)
3 The Island (Scarlett Johansson)
2 A Love Song for Bobby Long (Scarlett Johansson)
3 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Fleur Delacoeur / Clemence Poesy)
1 X2 (Famke Janssen as Jean Grey)
24 Alias (The Descent & Search and Rescue - Some may be spoilerish)

28 Days Later

01.

Elisabeth Rohm

02. 03.

Sarah Michelle Gellar

04.

Amelie

05. 06. 07. 08.

Lost in Translation

09. 10. 11. 12.

Life as a House

13.

The Island

14. 15. 16.

A Love Song for Bobby Long

17. 18.

Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire

19. 20. 21.

X2

20.

Alias

21. 22. 23. 24.
25. 26. 27. 28.
29. 30. 31. 32.
33. 34. 35. 36.
37. 38. 39. 40.
41. 42. 43. 44.

17 Cloud Textures

2005-05-20T17:47:51Z

Download the .zip file here.

Texture Information

- All textures are 100 x 100
- Please comment if taking. Credit crashwork if using.
- No offering it up for download anywhere!
- Don't claim them as yours.
- Don't even think about hotlinking them.
- Feel free to friend this journal to keep posted on new textures, icons, and brushes

If you make icons using these textures, please let me know - I'd love to see how you used them!

crashwork @ 2005-05-20T12:36:00

2005-05-20T16:40:30Z

4 Alias Icons

2005-05-17T15:31:29Z

Comment & Credit if Taking, Feedback = Love. Thanks!

14 Icons

2005-05-12T18:22:38Z

12 Alias (Season 4)
2 Firefly (Jewel Staite)

Teasers:

01. 02.

Alias
01. 02. 03. 04.
05. 06. 07. 08.
09. 10. 11. 12.

Firefly (Episode: Serenity)

13. 14.

COMMENT AND CREDIT IF TAKING. FEEDBACK = LOVE. LET ME KNOW IF YOU NOMINATE ANYTHING, IT MAKES ME ALL SQUISHY INSIDE. CHECK MY USERINFO FOR RESOURCES. ENJOY!

28 Icons

2005-05-11T18:37:55Z

20 Alias
4 Gilmore Girls
1 When Harry Met Sally
1 Alison Lohman
1 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Teasers

Alias

01. 02. 03. 04.
05. 06. 07. 08.
09. 10. 11. 12.
13. 14. 15. 16.
17. 18. 19. 20.

Gilmore Girls

21. 22. 23. 24.

When Harry Met Sally

25.

Alison Lohman

26.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

27.

COMMENT & CREDIT IF TAKING. DO NOT ALTER ANY ICONS. DO NOT HOTLINK. LET ME KNOW IF YOU NOMINATE ANYTHING, IT MAKES ME ALL SQUISHY INSIDE. ENJOY!

2 Law & Order: SVU, 13 Alias

2005-05-09T18:22:57Z

Law & Order: SVU (Spoiler-ish!!!)

01. 02.

Alias

03. 04. 05.
06. 07. 08.
09. 10. 11.
12. 13. 14.
15.

COMMENT & CREDIT IN KEYWORDS IF TAKING. DO NOT ALTER. FEEDBACK = LOVE. IF YOU NOM, LET ME KNOW, IT MAKES ME ALL SQUISHY INSIDE! ENJOY!!

5 Alias Icons

2005-05-08T01:02:32Z

Teasers
01. 02.

01. 02. 03.
04. 05.

Comment & credit if taking. Feedback = love. Enjoy!

Alias icons

2005-05-07T18:27:54Z

Teasers
01. 02.

01. 02. 03.
04. 05. 06.
07. 08. 09.
10.

Comment & credit if taking. Feedback = love. Enjoy!

SATC, Alias, Kill Bill, Kate Boswoth, Kate Winslet, Monica Keena, etc.

2005-05-07T16:08:45Z

Teasers
01. 02.

Sex and the City

01. 02. 03.

Lost

04.

Kill Bill

05.

Kate Winslet

06. 07. 08.
09. 10. 11.

Kate Bosworth, Monica Keena

12. 13.

Alias

14. 15. 16.
17. 18. 19.
20. 21. 22.
23. 24.

COMMENT AND CREDIT IF TAKING. DO NOT ALTER ICONS IN ANY WAY. ENJOY!!

6 Assorted Icons

2005-05-04T17:35:28Z

Teasers

01. 02.

01. 02. 03.
04. 05. 06.

Scarlett Johansson, Jessica Alba, Amy Sedaris,

2005-05-04T14:31:52Z

Teasers

01. 02.

Scarlett Johansson

01. 02. 03.
04. 05.

Jessica Alba

06. 7.

Amy Sedaris

08. 09. 10.

Comment & Credit if taking. Do not alter icons in ANY way. Enjoy!

Melissa George Icons

2005-05-03T19:07:24Z

Teasers
01. 02.

01. 02. 03.
04. 05. 06.
07. 08. 09.
10. 11. 12.
13.

Comment & Credit if taking. Do NOT modify these icons in any way. Feedback = love. Enjoy!