Icon Tutorial #1

In Adobe Photoshop CS3, includes 2 Curves layers.


For this tutorial, I'll start with a cap from Amélie. I found the image in leave me the white caps.


Now, we need to sharpen our image first.
Filter » Sharpen » Sharpen


After sharpening, go to Edit » Fade Sharpen. Set the layer mode to Screen and play with the opacity until you get a bit brighter image. (Mostly, I leave the opacity setting at 50%)


The image looks too yellow-ish & green-ish. To fix this, I'll make a new Colour Balance layer. (Layer » New Adjustment Layer » Colour Balance) Make sure you're on Midtones and use the following settings;
Cyan - Red: -15
Magenta - Green: -25
Yellow - Blue: +20

You do not have to use these settings all the time. If your image is too blue-ish, change the settings on Colour Balance layer to make it less blue-ish and more yellow-ish.

Add a new Curves layer (Layer » New Adjustment Layer » Curves) and make a curve like this in RGB channel only.

(Output: 160 & Input: 100)


Again, make a new Curves layer (Layer » New Adjustment Layer » Curves) but this time make a curve in Red channel. And down the opacity to 50%

(Output: 200 & Input: 185)


Make a new layer, fill it with #F2F0E3 and set the layer mode to Multiply at 100% opacity.


Make a new layer, fill it with #F1F1F1 and set the layer mode to Colour Burn at 40% opacity.


Add a new Brightness & Contrast layer (Layer » New Adjustment Layer » Brightness & Contrast) and set the Brightness to -30 and Contrast to 50.


Make a new layer, fill it with #0B0702 and set the layer mode to Exclusion at 100% opacity.