Going from this:
to this: 
or this:
Program used: PSP8
Translatable: yes
involves: curves, color balance, hue/saturation, fill layers, & brightness/contrast.
Comments are love:]
with the last layer:
I would love to see what you come up with if you use this.
Other icons made using this (with some adjustments like a screen layer):
or this:
Program used: PSP8
Translatable: yes
involves: curves, color balance, hue/saturation, fill layers, & brightness/contrast.
Comments are love:]
- This step is optional if your base is to dark just add a screen layer and set it from 10 to 75.
- Add a new brightness/contrast with the following settings: brightness: -9 contrast: 15. Once that is done set the layer to color.
- Duplicate the brightness/contrast layer and set it to multiply.
- Add a new curves layer with the following settings:
RGB: point one: input:130, output:195
Point two: input: 29, output: 61
Red: point one: input: 158, output: 179
Point two: input: 110, output:113
Point three: input: 57, output: 49
Blue: point one: input: 119, output: 157
Point two: input: 69, output: 55
- Add a new color balance layer with these settings:
Midtones:26, -7, 14
Highlights:-24, 0, 3
Keep preserve luminance checked
- Add a new raster layer and fill with #77100b and then set it to exclusion at 72.
- Add a hue/sat/lightness layer with the following settings only for saturation:
Reds: -10
- Add another Hue/sat/lightness layer with the following settings:
Reds: hue: -5, Saturation: 13.
- optional: if your image is to red add a new raster layer & fill with #9aeef6 and set to burn and adjust the opacity to your liking.
- Flatten & your done.
with the last layer:
I would love to see what you come up with if you use this.
Other icons made using this (with some adjustments like a screen layer):