Black and White Base, Colored Inset Tut! (Fixed!)
unique_kiwi 's Kristen Kreuk tutorial here. Sorry for any quality issues, it happens when you resize it to 100x100. Go from this to
! Program: PSP8. Easily translatable.
Edited: Changed files to PNGs and removed the Rory/Logan one, I didn't like how that ended up even after re-cropping
Base:
(1) Crop, resize your base. Copy image to a new image. One will be the new base (black and white), and the other will become the inset and have its color enhanced.
(2) Duplicate your background and set it to screen, opacity 100%.
(3) Duplicate the background again, and drag the new layer up top. Go to Adjust-->Blur-->Gaussian Blur and set it to 2.00 pixels. Set the blurred layer to Overlay (opacity 100%).
(4) Flatten the image (merge all layers). Desaturate the image by going to Colorize (Shift + L) and putting the Saturation at 0, no matter what the Hue is set to (this is how I do it, but there are other ways like Multiplying an all-black layer). Duplicate this layer and Screen (opacity 100%) it to brighten it up a little (if it needs it! Screencaps do, especially of NBC shows, but high-quality/photoshoot pics don’t). If you don’t re-screen it, and it still ended up too light, either go back, delete the original screen layer, and pick up with the blurred overlay layer, or duplicate your final B&W image and set it to Multiply. This should make it a bit darker. Merge these two layers, and you have your black-and-white base. Leave it and go work on the inset.
Inset:
This follows the typical Beige/Blue/Pink pattern, with some changes: a dark blue Exclusion layer, and if it’s green you want enhanced you can use green instead of blue. The changes necessary to do this are at the end.
(5) Like with the base, duplicate your background and set it to screen, opacity 100%.
(6) Create a new layer and fill it with #F8C47A. Set this layer to Soft Light, 100% opacity.
(7) Create another new layer. This time, fill it with #000040 and set it to Exclusion, 100% opacity.
(8) Another new layer, filled with #49B8EB. Set this one to Burn. Since its blue, you may need to lower the opacity. I used 72%.
(9) The last new fill layer you need to create is the pink one. The pink I used is #FD99F0. Set this layer to Soft Light, 100% opacity
(10)To enhance the color you want enhanced, you need to create a new Adjustment Layer, Hue/Saturation/Lightness. But only change the saturation. For this icon, I put it up to 43, but in some other icons you may need more or less saturation than this. Merge all layers. Paste as a new layer onto your black-and-white base.
(11)Resize this layer, making sure “Resize all layers” isn’t checked off. 75x75 pixels is a good size. Before merging all the layers, you can play around with the whole icon, by re-blurring the black-and-white layer, inserting a texture between the two layers, or whatever you want. All textures I used are from http://colorfilter.net/ (this one is Monochrome Lights 7) and set it to Screen (100%). Merge all layers, add some text or brushes, and you’re done!
To Enhance Green:
Everything is the same, except it doesn’t need the Exclusion layer, and the Burn layer’s color is changed to #3CB30D. Change the opacity (for this one I used 57%). It also doesn’t need the New Adjustment Layer. Also, for the Emily Deschanel one, I changed the background of the picture back to its original color by duplicating the Background layer and dragging it to the top again, and erasing Emily by selecting the entire background, inverting the selection, and deleting what was selected. Then, because some of the original picture was left, I used the eraser tool to eliminate that. This makes the green stand out more. If the background has the green, erase the foreground (subject)…if both have green (eyes, clothes, trees, etc.) then do nothing!
Other Examples:
Blue: 
Green: 
