Icon Tutorial using light textures, brushes, and duplicte images

Alrighty, I use the tutorials all the time here, and this com is just lovely, so I thought I'd add one of my own. Its my first, so sorry if it doesn't make since!

This is the icon we'll be making with PS7 -->



Alrighty, here's the picture to start with , the lovely and beautiful Billy Martin


Crop it down to 100 x 100 so we have this

Now, we'll play with layers and blends to get it it at a good picture we like.

First, lets duplicate the layer and set it to Soft Light. That's nice, but a little dark, so duplicate it again, and take the layer in the middle, then set it to screen at Opacity 50%. Duplicate the top layer again and set it to Hard Light at 70%. Now, Duplicate your image again, then hit Ctrl + U to get the Hue/Saturation Box up, and turn the Saturation all the way down so you have a black and white Billy. Change our blending mode to Overlay at 75%. Alright, lets sharpen once. Okie dokie, now lets hit Shift + Ctrl + E to merge all our visible layers.

Now we have this base->

Rawr, sexy right? Mmkay. Alight, we're gonna create a new layer and fill it with a Black (#000000) set to Soft Light. Next, a lay filled with White (#FFFFFF) set to Overlay at 50% Opacity.

Now we have this ->

Ok, now we're gonna create an gradient adjustment layer using this gradient (not quite sure who made it, so if its yours, let me know) and set it Soft Light at 49%

Alright, now we're gonna create a new layer, and put this brush on it (made by Photoshopranger) Then hit Ctrl + T and rotate it 180 Degrees.

Ok, at this point we have this

Now, go to your brush layer, and use the Magic Wand Tool, and select the free area, then use the Rectangular marquee to deselect everything but the smaller box. Now, select the frame with the picture of Billy, and nudge your selector to the part of the image you can in the smaller box and copy it with Ctrl + C. Then make sure that layer is below your brush layer, then turn the Visabilty of the brush layer off.

Now, we're going to add this light texture
We'll rotate it 180 degrees, and set our blending mode to Screen.

Ok, so we're going to duplicate our base and use the blur tool and just go nuts, then set it to Overlay, then repeat on your smaller image.

Alright, now, turn the Visabilty back on in the brush layer, and set the Opacity to 75%

Then, we're going to create another layer, and put this brush -> on it in black and set the layer to Soft Light.

And one last with this brush in black

Then, we're done, and we have this ->

I hope that was helpful! Please let me know, and I'd love to see what people make with it!

-Trip