Starting with not-great photos?
(LJ Scrapbook keeps going down, so I've got an alternate version in my tutorial journal.)
We'll go from this to:
It's fun to make icons from pictures that are already beautiful, but what if you want some showing your family, holiday or vacation pics, your pets, even yourself? What if you don't have a professional photographer handy? You can still make nice icons! This tutorial will address some of the issues you might run into.
We'll start with this blah picture my husband snapped of me and my dogs. I chose it because it has some problems. My face is overexposed, and my black dog Jetty is underexposed. Also, no matter how I crop it, I'll barely have any room for anything else, unless I make the picture tiny. That's a major problem with pictures with multiple subjects. Well, let's see what we can do about those.
I decided to crop the picture down to mostly just faces, but leaving in a little background, since the vines and flowers contribute to the image. A lot of backgrounds detract from the subjects, so sometimes cropping them all the way out works best. I leave some background beside my white dog Cutter, so he's got some definition and won't just be a white blob at the side.
Duplicate the image and set the top layer to color burn, 40% opacity. I like to sharpen the bottom layer now, instead of sharpening before duplicating, as the top layer will stay a little more fuzzy and the final image won't be too pixelly. So, now we've added some contrast to the overexposed parts, but Jetty is too dark.
I add a layer mask to the top layer (see this tutorial for how to use layer masks) and then mask Jetty out of the color burn layer. Getting the edges perfect doesn't matter here, since it's such a small picture -- her outline won't be obvious.
Now we can see most of the colors and detail okay. Merge the layers so you have one base. Let's look at the colors in the picture now, to decide what colors will work well when we add other elements. I have a blue dress on, the flowers are yellow, and the leaves are green. Let's use that blue to tie the image together.
I find an image (here) that I think will add some visual interest once I add it, but it's green. I use the eyedropper tool to grab the blue color in my dress, then change the color of my new image by using image > hue/saturation, clicking the Colorize box, and raising the saturation until it looks like the blue I want.
=> 
Set the new blue layer to pin light, 100% opacity. Whoa, now it looks messed up!
Copy the bottom layer and bring it to the top. Now use transform to make it smaller (I set it to 90%) so there is some of the background showing at each edge. Set it to screen, 100% opacity.
Funky. :) Now duplicate your new smaller layer, move it to the top, transform it to 90% smaller, and set it to normal, 100% opacity.
Now for fun with effects, to make those outer transitions pop a little more. First, let's grab another color from the picture. I chose the lightest red/orange I could get from my hair, since orange and blue are complimentary colors. Select the middle image layer (currently making that lighter border) and then click the Effects button at the bottom of the layers window.
Select Inner Glow and set it to the orange color we selected, and set it on screen, 75% opacity HERE in the effects settings, NOT the layer itself.
Now add the inner glow effect to the top layer, but set this one to color burn, 75% opacity, instead of screen. The orange color we used before is a little dark, so let's use the yellow in the flower instead.
Well, this is nicer than it was to start, but still basically just a snapshot with a fancy frame. Let's add some doodads.
Paste this image to the top, and set it to exclusion, 100% opacity.
We're getting away from the blue we were using, so let's make sure we use it now. Add a nice swirly heart in the bottom (whatever brushes you might have handy) and put a blue outer glow behind it (in effects, set to normal, 100% opacity).
Now some white text at the top. This is plain ol' Times New Roman, lowered to 70% height. Add the same blue outer glow to match the swirly heart. Since we have some unused neutral space under the text, duplicate your swirly heart layer, flip it horizontally, and move it up to the top right. Add a one-pixel blue border (or not) and you're done!
By adding a frame that's based on the picture, and adding elements that use the same colors as are in the picture, you can make boring snapshots into artistic icons. Another one I recently made for a friend uses the same basic technique:
Hope people like it!
We'll go from this to:
It's fun to make icons from pictures that are already beautiful, but what if you want some showing your family, holiday or vacation pics, your pets, even yourself? What if you don't have a professional photographer handy? You can still make nice icons! This tutorial will address some of the issues you might run into.
We'll start with this blah picture my husband snapped of me and my dogs. I chose it because it has some problems. My face is overexposed, and my black dog Jetty is underexposed. Also, no matter how I crop it, I'll barely have any room for anything else, unless I make the picture tiny. That's a major problem with pictures with multiple subjects. Well, let's see what we can do about those.
I decided to crop the picture down to mostly just faces, but leaving in a little background, since the vines and flowers contribute to the image. A lot of backgrounds detract from the subjects, so sometimes cropping them all the way out works best. I leave some background beside my white dog Cutter, so he's got some definition and won't just be a white blob at the side.
Duplicate the image and set the top layer to color burn, 40% opacity. I like to sharpen the bottom layer now, instead of sharpening before duplicating, as the top layer will stay a little more fuzzy and the final image won't be too pixelly. So, now we've added some contrast to the overexposed parts, but Jetty is too dark.
I add a layer mask to the top layer (see this tutorial for how to use layer masks) and then mask Jetty out of the color burn layer. Getting the edges perfect doesn't matter here, since it's such a small picture -- her outline won't be obvious.
Now we can see most of the colors and detail okay. Merge the layers so you have one base. Let's look at the colors in the picture now, to decide what colors will work well when we add other elements. I have a blue dress on, the flowers are yellow, and the leaves are green. Let's use that blue to tie the image together.
I find an image (here) that I think will add some visual interest once I add it, but it's green. I use the eyedropper tool to grab the blue color in my dress, then change the color of my new image by using image > hue/saturation, clicking the Colorize box, and raising the saturation until it looks like the blue I want.
Set the new blue layer to pin light, 100% opacity. Whoa, now it looks messed up!
Copy the bottom layer and bring it to the top. Now use transform to make it smaller (I set it to 90%) so there is some of the background showing at each edge. Set it to screen, 100% opacity.
Funky. :) Now duplicate your new smaller layer, move it to the top, transform it to 90% smaller, and set it to normal, 100% opacity.
Now for fun with effects, to make those outer transitions pop a little more. First, let's grab another color from the picture. I chose the lightest red/orange I could get from my hair, since orange and blue are complimentary colors. Select the middle image layer (currently making that lighter border) and then click the Effects button at the bottom of the layers window.
Select Inner Glow and set it to the orange color we selected, and set it on screen, 75% opacity HERE in the effects settings, NOT the layer itself.
Now add the inner glow effect to the top layer, but set this one to color burn, 75% opacity, instead of screen. The orange color we used before is a little dark, so let's use the yellow in the flower instead.
Well, this is nicer than it was to start, but still basically just a snapshot with a fancy frame. Let's add some doodads.
Paste this image to the top, and set it to exclusion, 100% opacity.
We're getting away from the blue we were using, so let's make sure we use it now. Add a nice swirly heart in the bottom (whatever brushes you might have handy) and put a blue outer glow behind it (in effects, set to normal, 100% opacity).
Now some white text at the top. This is plain ol' Times New Roman, lowered to 70% height. Add the same blue outer glow to match the swirly heart. Since we have some unused neutral space under the text, duplicate your swirly heart layer, flip it horizontally, and move it up to the top right. Add a one-pixel blue border (or not) and you're done!
By adding a frame that's based on the picture, and adding elements that use the same colors as are in the picture, you can make boring snapshots into artistic icons. Another one I recently made for a friend uses the same basic technique:
Hope people like it!