Colour correction/icon tut for PS 7 & up
Today, friends, Romans, countrymen, etc., we'll be making
this:
from:
Righty-o. You're free to yoink this tutorial and use it, just don't go off and say you wrote it. Because then I'll have to send the flying monkeys after you and I don't want to do that. Ok? Same goes for using the icon. Groovy.
Here we go!
Start with your image, crop it, resize it, you know the drill. Then duplicate it and set the layer setting to "screen." Duplicate it again and set it to "soft light." Then go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian blur. Put in whatever settings you'd like, but I keep it from 0.5-2.0. Hit ok. Merge your base layer and screen layer and go to filter>sharpen. You may have to fade the sharpen a bit by going to Edit>Fade Sharpen.
It should look like this:
Euw. Too dark, right? Well, get a damn torch!
Or you could make a new layer, in between your base and blurred layer. Name it brown, Fred, cheese, or whatever you wish. Flood fill it with something like #46312B and set the layer setting to screen.
How the layers should look, for the visual learners in the audience:
How your icon should look:
Yippee! Onto step number...lost my numbers! Drat. Anyone find them, please call.
Make a new layer, above all your other layers. Name it David, that's a nice name.
Use this gradient:
(Made by me, yay, me.)
and set the layer setting to softlight.
[You can stop here, or go on and pass Go, but you won't collect $200.]
Now we're going to have fun with masks. No, not the party kind, but those are neat, too. [A quick note about masks: using black will "erase" your layer, and using white will restore it.]
Duplicate your base layer and reset your colour palette (hit your "D" key). Then click on the button that looks like a circle within a box on your layers menu. (Looks like this.) Click on the mask on your layer menu (it should look like a white box attached to your layer) and with a smallish black brush, (NOT eraser!) start erasing your background so that all that is left is your person. (The nice thing about masks is that if accidentally erase part of what you want to keep, you can simply go over it with a white brush instead of undoing it.)
Behind your mask layer [but in front of your base layer], make two new layers. Name one Alfred and the other Janice. Janice should be above Alfred. Set Alfred's layer settings to "soft light." (We likes soft light, precioussss, we do.)
Use this gradient, also by me:
Floodfill Janice with solid white and bring the opacity down to 40%. Use the gaussian blur filter to blur your original layer.
Icon should look like this:
If not, I buggered up explaining, or you buggered up following. Oops.
To top it all off and make it look all purteh, use the shape tool to make an itty bitty square. (Hold shift to make it perfectly square). Duplicate it. Hold shift and hit the right arrow key to move it over one. Duplicate it again and repeat. Merge all your shape layers together and set the opacity to "softlight."
Using a simple font like Arial and the point size set to 2, write some jibberish. Doesn't matter what you write, it won't be legible.
To get a neat, 1px border, do the following:
Make a new layer, go to select>all, then select>modify>border 1px. Click ok, then flood fill with the colour you want. (I used a dark chocolate brown.)
To delete any excess, ctrl+shift+i to inverse the selection and hit delete a few times to clear it.
Deselect by hitting ctrl+d and then save.
Done, yaaaaaaaaay.
this:
from:Righty-o. You're free to yoink this tutorial and use it, just don't go off and say you wrote it. Because then I'll have to send the flying monkeys after you and I don't want to do that. Ok? Same goes for using the icon. Groovy.
Here we go!
Start with your image, crop it, resize it, you know the drill. Then duplicate it and set the layer setting to "screen." Duplicate it again and set it to "soft light." Then go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian blur. Put in whatever settings you'd like, but I keep it from 0.5-2.0. Hit ok. Merge your base layer and screen layer and go to filter>sharpen. You may have to fade the sharpen a bit by going to Edit>Fade Sharpen.
It should look like this:
Euw. Too dark, right? Well, get a damn torch!
Or you could make a new layer, in between your base and blurred layer. Name it brown, Fred, cheese, or whatever you wish. Flood fill it with something like #46312B and set the layer setting to screen.
How the layers should look, for the visual learners in the audience:
How your icon should look:
Yippee! Onto step number...lost my numbers! Drat. Anyone find them, please call.
Make a new layer, above all your other layers. Name it David, that's a nice name.
Use this gradient:
(Made by me, yay, me.) and set the layer setting to softlight.
[You can stop here, or go on and pass Go, but you won't collect $200.]
Now we're going to have fun with masks. No, not the party kind, but those are neat, too. [A quick note about masks: using black will "erase" your layer, and using white will restore it.]
Duplicate your base layer and reset your colour palette (hit your "D" key). Then click on the button that looks like a circle within a box on your layers menu. (Looks like this.) Click on the mask on your layer menu (it should look like a white box attached to your layer) and with a smallish black brush, (NOT eraser!) start erasing your background so that all that is left is your person. (The nice thing about masks is that if accidentally erase part of what you want to keep, you can simply go over it with a white brush instead of undoing it.)
Behind your mask layer [but in front of your base layer], make two new layers. Name one Alfred and the other Janice. Janice should be above Alfred. Set Alfred's layer settings to "soft light." (We likes soft light, precioussss, we do.)
Use this gradient, also by me:
Floodfill Janice with solid white and bring the opacity down to 40%. Use the gaussian blur filter to blur your original layer.
Icon should look like this:
If not, I buggered up explaining, or you buggered up following. Oops.
To top it all off and make it look all purteh, use the shape tool to make an itty bitty square. (Hold shift to make it perfectly square). Duplicate it. Hold shift and hit the right arrow key to move it over one. Duplicate it again and repeat. Merge all your shape layers together and set the opacity to "softlight."
Using a simple font like Arial and the point size set to 2, write some jibberish. Doesn't matter what you write, it won't be legible.
To get a neat, 1px border, do the following:
Make a new layer, go to select>all, then select>modify>border 1px. Click ok, then flood fill with the colour you want. (I used a dark chocolate brown.)
To delete any excess, ctrl+shift+i to inverse the selection and hit delete a few times to clear it.
Deselect by hitting ctrl+d and then save.
Done, yaaaaaaaaay.