Guide to Using 4 Common Blending Options

Okay, so. Almost everyday I (and every other member here) see at LEAST one question that's "How do I get the effects in these icons?".
I'm tired of seeing the same question asked over and over again, and I know everyone else is. Well, enough chitter chatter! Here's my tutorial on
creating coloring effects using the most common blending options (Full tutorial - includes preparing the base).
IMAGE HEAVY!

MADE IN PHOTOSHOP 7.0, but I'm sure it's translateable.

Every great icon needs a place to start. Where is that? An image, duh. ^^ I'm using this picture of the gorgeous Sonny Moore from the band From First to Last. Once you've got your image picked out, resize and crop to your liking. *I'd prefer you NOT to use the same image I used. Why? Because this is just a guide. This is just to show you what the blending options do and the effects they create. I wrote this to 'stimulate' your imagination, to get your creative juices going, to make great icons. It wouldn't help you very much if your icon turned out the same as mine, now would it?* 1. Cropping Crop it however you like. This is my base: Of course, there are many, many ways to crop a base. If you can't find a good crop for your picture, look at this tutorial for some advice. Now back to my tutorial. 2. Preparing the base Now let's prepare the base. If your image is a tad bit on the blurry side, sharpen it (File>Sharpen>Sharpen). Sometimes once isn't good enough. If it's still not sharp enough, try sharpening it a second time. For some icons, it will make it TOO sharp, and on others it will be fine. It all depends on the sharpness of the original picture, I guess. Time for a sharpening trick I do on almost every icon I make: unsharp mask Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask). As you can see, it adds a crispness to your icon and brightens it up a bit. I didn't like the fact that you could hardly see Sonny's face. Here is one simple way to brighten your icon. Go to 'Image>Adjustments>Levels'. There will be a bunch of horizontal lines in a box, and above that, a pull down menu. Change the 'RGB' in the pull down menu to 'Red'. Pull the arrow on the right (the all-white one) a little over to the left until you get a good amount of red in your base. Do the same thing to the green and blue channels. I will occasionally uncheck the 'Preview' box to see if I like the change (I find that very helpful). Here were my final input levels: Red-0, 1.00, 228 Green-0, 1.00, 225 Blue-0, 1.00, 224 Much better! ^^ If you need to soften his/her skin, use the blur tool to do so. I liked the nice, crispness of my icon, so I left it as it was. Though Sonny's face was a little brighter...I knew it could look better. So I duplicated the base two times with the following settings: Layer 3: Screen, 30% opacity Layer 2: Screen, 70% opacity (Base) If both screen layers don't look good on your icon, or if the opacity is too high or low for your icon, change it to suit your likeness. Boy, those screen layers sure made the icon look much sharper. So, to make Sonny look softer, I applied a gaussion blur (Filter>Blur>Gaussion blur) on the second layer with the following settings: Radius: 1.0 That looks a lot better. =) Merge visible (ctrl+shift+E), and now we've got our base! My finished base: 3. Multiply and Exclusion In almost every tutorial, there's a "dark blue exclusion layer". What does that do, exactly? Take a look: Base- Exclusion- (#000A2C) See the difference? The exclusion layer adds some nice color to the skin, and adds a blue tint to the darker areas of the icon. I tend to use a darker shade of a sky-blue color (like #002038 for example) most of the time instead of a dark blue. I don't know why; I just like the effect colors like #002038 give. Another common color and blending option is a tan multiply layer. I have to say, I use this more often than not. Let's see what this does, shall we? (Please note that I deleted the exclusion layer for this! I'm showing you the multiply layer by itself) Base- Multiply- (#E7DCB5) I really like using multiply layers. If you want a darker tint to your icon, then use a darker tan color, like I did. If you want it to be lighter, but not as dark as the tan layer makes it, try using a light tan/yellow color, like #FBF3CC. Try experimenting with different colors and the effects you get with them. I really like the tan multiply layers, but try peach as well and see if you like it. =) It all depends on your taste. Now let's see what we get when we COMBINE the two. Base- Exclusion and Multiply- (#000A2C, opacity 70% + #E7DCB5) I made two new layers, and filled the FIRST with #E7DCB5 and set it to multiply. The SECOND was filled with #000A2C and set to exclusion, 70% opacity. Nice effect, huh? ^^ Now just play around with the two layers, find other colors you like...just experiment and have fun with it! 4. Color Burn and Soft Light These two aren't as common as the multiply and exclusion layers, but many icon makers use these two blending options, myself included. First, let's explore the color burn option. Color burn, like multiply, darkens the image. But color burn darkens the shadows...it gives the shadows in the icon a hint of the color you chose. Let's say you made a new layer and filled it with a light pink color. The shadows in the image now turned a shade of pink, which, coincidentally, makes the icon take on a pinkish glow. Example: Base- Color burn- (#C8F8FA) See what I mean? Look at shadows on Sonny's face in the color burn layer and compare it to the ones on the base. Can you guess what color I used? I used light blue, yes. It made his shirt look more green and added more blue to his hair. Soft light layers are the multi-purpose layers. If you want to enhance the shadows in the icon and make it darker, you can add a fairly dark blue and set it to soft light. Voila! Now your shadows stand out more and the icon is instantly darker. But if the color is too dark, your icon will be too dark. It's the same thing with a light color - it will lighten the image and make the shadows lighter as well. Let's take a look and see. Base- Soft light- (#52697D) Base- Soft light- (#D8D0C0) I always play around with the colors when it's on a soft light layer. Sometimes one color will be too light, another will be too dark...it really takes some experimenting to get the hang of it. Now, let's see what happens when we mesh color burn and soft light. Base- Soft light and color burn- (#52697D + #C8F8FA) For this one, I made two new layers and filled the first one with #52697D, a light tan color, and set it to soft light. Then I filled the second one with #C8F8FA, the same light blue color I used in my color burn example, and set this layer to color burn. Base- Soft light and color burn- (#666666 + #C8F8FA) You can tell I used a dark color on the soft light layer for this one. I filled a new layer with #666666 and set it to soft light, and another new layer filled with #C8F8FA and set to color burn. You can play around with the opacities of these two layers until you get something that looks just right. I left both at 100% opacity to show you what it looks like. Base- 2 Soft lights and color burn- (#666666 + #52697D + #C8F8FA) As you can see, I added the light tan soft light layer smack dab in the middle of the dark gray soft light and the light blue color burn. This one's not too dark, and not too light. =) 5. Variations Now it's time for you to experiment and come up with your own variations of these layers. Here are some quick ones I came up with. -New layer, fill it with #001A2C -Set this layer to exclusion, 100% -Duplicate the base layer and drag it to the top -Desaturate (ctrl+shift+U) and set to soft light, 100% -New layer, fill this with #E5C1AF and set it to soft light, 100% -New layer, fill it with #E5D6AF and set it to multiply, 100% -New layer, fill it with #FFFFFF and set it to color, 30% -New layer, fill it with #010933 and set it to exclusion, 70% -New layer -Set it to soft light and copy/paste this gradient: -Duplicate the base and drag it to the top -Desaturate it and set it to screen, 30% -New layer once again ^^ and fill it with #FBF2CA and set it to multiply, 30% -New layer and fill it with #E5D3B3 then set it to multiply, 100% -Last layer! Make a new layer and fill it with #C4C5C5 and set it to color burn, 50% -New layer, and fill it with # then set it to exclusion, 60% -Duplicate the base layer and drag it to the top -Set the dupliacate to linear dodge, 35% -New layer, fill it with #E0D19B, and set this layer to multiply, 20% -Copy/paste onto a new layer, and set it to soft light, 100% -New layer once again, fill it with #E5E8E9, and set this to color burn, 100% -Another new layer. Fill it with #C5BAAE and set it to soft light, 60% -Make a new layer, fill it with #F1D8AC, and set it to color, 20% -Finally, make a new layer, fill it with black (#000000) and set it to soft light, 30%

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I hope this tutorial helped someone in some way. Remember, the key to making nice icons is experimenting and trying new things!
Also, keep in mind that this is just to guide you along and show you what you can do with the blending options I introduced. If you made an icon using this guide, I'd love to see it! If you find any mistakes or anything that could be revised, please tell me. =]
Have fun creating new icons!

*Sonny Moore image is from the FFTL.net gallery. The gradients used are mine unless stated otherwise.

x-posted