Tutorial 08 ; Stock Coloring - Aurora Borealis

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USING PS7 - PSP Friendly :)
{Curves, Selective Coloring w/a Color Balance equivalent}

As requested by snicketcrazy13.
This tut is loosely based on this tutorial by jaysus.
Your base is really important as to how the colors will turn out.

01. I start with this image of the Aurora Borealis from Getty Images. I crop & resize it to 100x100. Duplicate the base (Ctrl+J) and set to Screen at 100%. (Opacity depends on your base).

WHERE ARE MY ADJUSTMENT LAYERS? - Screenshot

02. Create a new adjustment layer. (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Selective Coloring or see the screenshot above). Enter these settings:

REDS: Cyan: -100, Magenta: +30, Yellow: +32, Black: 0
NEUTRALS: Cyan: -30 - Leave everything else at 0.

Change the opacity to 30%.

**For the color balance equivalent, click here.**
Leave the opacity of the color balance adjustment layer at 100%.

I've also noticed, you can also leave that layer out completely. I just wanted to emphasize the reds in my icon.

03. Create a new layer (Ctrl+Shift+N) and fill it with #000E25. Set the blend mode to Exclusion at 100%.

04. Create a new layer and fill it with #135384 and set the blend mode to Exclusion at 30%.

05. Create another new layer and fill it with #62C2DA (#62C2DA) and set the blend mode to Color Burn at 100%.

06. Create a new adjustment layer. (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation). Increase the Saturation to +20.

07. Create another new adjustment layer; this time Curves. (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves). Here are the screenshots, since there are a lot of points. They don't have to be exact; in fact, play around :) - RGB, RED.

08. Finally, create a new layer and fill it with #F1AC5E (#F1AC5E). Set the blend mode to Multiply at 20%. The opacity will depend on how you want your icon to look.

As you can see, the difference between the first one (Selective Coloring) and the second one (Color Balance) is not even distinguishable. & there you have it! I'd love see your results :)

Examples using this technique: