Everyone seems to be having trouble with the polaroid style icons today, so I thought I'd write a quick tutorial. Bear with me, it's my first one.
(This tutorial was written for PS7.)
The icon:
This is the base I started with:
(Base courtesy of
g_g_stillness)
First, I did the effects to the picture itself at a regular scale, so I could see it better. I duplicated the base and set the second layer to screen, opacity 35% to brighten it a little:
Between those two layers, I created a new layer and flood-filled it with a light brownish color to get a subtle sepia sort of tone. I set that layer to Color at 66%:
to create 
I then added what is admittedly a very subtle border, so that when I shrunk the picture, it had an effect like the edge of a polaroid. The border is on a new layer, set to normal, opacity 79%:
to create 
I then linked all four layers (two base pics, the sepia tone, and the border) to keep them all together as I shrunk them. You can merge these layers, but I always like the ability to to go back and change individual layers, so I like to link instead. To link, make sure one of the layers you want linked is active (has the little brush next to it) and click in the box that should be blank next to the box that has the eye in each layer that you want linked. A chain icon should appear in the box. To unlink, click the box again.
Anyway, so I linked all the layers and went to Edit>>Transform>>Scale to shrink the picture. Make sure to hold the shift button while grabbing the corner, to keep the image aspects correct. The shrunken icon looks like this:
(Please ignore the grey background, that would be transparent, but it went white when I tried to save the .jpg for the tutorial, so I filled it with grey to make it easier to see the next three steps.
Now to add the white box that makes it look like a photograph. I like to leave a bit more space on the bottom to make it look like a polaroid. Make a new layer underneath the picture and take your rectangular selection tool and draw a box a bit bigger than your picture. Use the arrow keys to nudge it until it's centered if you're off. Flood fill it with white, or a slightly off-white if you'd prefer. A really easy short-cut key to use is the Alt+Del keys to fill it with the foreground color or the Ctrl+Del keys for the background color. Or use the bucket tool. You can add a drop shadow to the white box to give it a 3D effect by right-clicking the layer and selecting Blending Options>>Drop Shadow. You can mess with the settings, but the presets usually look pretty good:
(Again, the grey layer is just for demonstration.)
Now link the white box to the rest of your layers and select Edit>>Transform>>Rotate to turn the photo a bit if you want. It's probably a good idea to do any text that you want lined up with the picture (and link the layers) before you rotate it, but I forgot, so my text step is coming a bit later:
(Last time you'll see the ugly grey, I promise.)
I added a layer of parchment behind the photo for some background. I don't have the individual layer saved, but the original image is this:
I just dragged and dropped it from one file to the other and didn't resize it or anything, because this was a quickie tutorial:
I wasn't wild about the color, so I darkened it a bit with a gradient set to normal, 42% opacity:
to create 
I then added text (rotated after the fact, which is why it doesn't quite line up) in a darkish brown. The font is Monika and the size is 10pt:
I hope that was clear enough for everyone to follow. Again, it was basically just to demonstrate the one effect, which is why I didn't put a lot of effort into the background or anything. Please comment if you found it helpful.
(This tutorial was written for PS7.)
The icon:
This is the base I started with:
(Base courtesy of
g_g_stillness)First, I did the effects to the picture itself at a regular scale, so I could see it better. I duplicated the base and set the second layer to screen, opacity 35% to brighten it a little:
Between those two layers, I created a new layer and flood-filled it with a light brownish color to get a subtle sepia sort of tone. I set that layer to Color at 66%:
to create I then added what is admittedly a very subtle border, so that when I shrunk the picture, it had an effect like the edge of a polaroid. The border is on a new layer, set to normal, opacity 79%:
to create I then linked all four layers (two base pics, the sepia tone, and the border) to keep them all together as I shrunk them. You can merge these layers, but I always like the ability to to go back and change individual layers, so I like to link instead. To link, make sure one of the layers you want linked is active (has the little brush next to it) and click in the box that should be blank next to the box that has the eye in each layer that you want linked. A chain icon should appear in the box. To unlink, click the box again.
Anyway, so I linked all the layers and went to Edit>>Transform>>Scale to shrink the picture. Make sure to hold the shift button while grabbing the corner, to keep the image aspects correct. The shrunken icon looks like this:
(Please ignore the grey background, that would be transparent, but it went white when I tried to save the .jpg for the tutorial, so I filled it with grey to make it easier to see the next three steps.
Now to add the white box that makes it look like a photograph. I like to leave a bit more space on the bottom to make it look like a polaroid. Make a new layer underneath the picture and take your rectangular selection tool and draw a box a bit bigger than your picture. Use the arrow keys to nudge it until it's centered if you're off. Flood fill it with white, or a slightly off-white if you'd prefer. A really easy short-cut key to use is the Alt+Del keys to fill it with the foreground color or the Ctrl+Del keys for the background color. Or use the bucket tool. You can add a drop shadow to the white box to give it a 3D effect by right-clicking the layer and selecting Blending Options>>Drop Shadow. You can mess with the settings, but the presets usually look pretty good:
(Again, the grey layer is just for demonstration.)
Now link the white box to the rest of your layers and select Edit>>Transform>>Rotate to turn the photo a bit if you want. It's probably a good idea to do any text that you want lined up with the picture (and link the layers) before you rotate it, but I forgot, so my text step is coming a bit later:
(Last time you'll see the ugly grey, I promise.)
I added a layer of parchment behind the photo for some background. I don't have the individual layer saved, but the original image is this:
I just dragged and dropped it from one file to the other and didn't resize it or anything, because this was a quickie tutorial:
I wasn't wild about the color, so I darkened it a bit with a gradient set to normal, 42% opacity:
to create I then added text (rotated after the fact, which is why it doesn't quite line up) in a darkish brown. The font is Monika and the size is 10pt:
I hope that was clear enough for everyone to follow. Again, it was basically just to demonstrate the one effect, which is why I didn't put a lot of effort into the background or anything. Please comment if you found it helpful.