A Selective Color-free tutorial

Taking Sandra Bullock from this to this

This tutorial was made in PS CS3 (on a Mac) but I don't think there's anything in it that is not translatable. Uses Gradient Map, Levels, and layer masks.


From an icon challenge on severalplums, where this tutorial is also posted.

I selected a crop which had some of the pretty background tree, and resized to icon size, then duplicated the base layer and set it to Soft Light 100%.

Next up, a Gradient Map in black and white. Nice and simple. At this point what I have looks like this:



I then adjusted the Levels slightly, basically to get the light bits lighter - I moved the RH pointer very slightly to the left, and the middle pointer a little bit left as well.

Now for the bit that adds all the drama: adding in this texture by amethystia. I actually added this twice: the lower layer is on Hard Light 100%, and then there's a Darken layer on 60% to enrich the colour.



By now, the figure herself is mostly obscured, so. I duplicated the base layer and brought it up above the two texture layers, and set it to Screen 100%. Then Desaturated the layer (Image>Adjustments>Desaturate) and did a Fade Desaturate back to 32% (Edit>Fade Desaturate - nb this has to be done immediately after the Desaturate, or the option disappears). I put a Layer Mask on, because of course my Screen layer was hiding all the pretty texture, and masked out everything but Sandra.

Then, I hid the screen layer and the two texture layers, and made a new amalgamated layer (create new layer, then Command+Alt+Shift+E) of everything else (ie the base with the gradient map and levels adjustment), just above the Screen layer. Duplicated the mask thus: select the existing Mask and right-click on it for a menu. Select the "Add Layer Mask to Selection" option, then go to the new layer and click on the Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. How nice, a new layer mask exactly like the other one. After all this, set the layer to Soft Light 100%, and make the other layers visible again.

Next up, another amalgamated layer, this time of everything that's visible, and set to Color Burn at 24%, to brighten it up a bit and bring out the vibrant colour of the texture.

I duplicated this layer and made a circular selection in the centre, with Feather set to 5, and deleted the contents of the circle. Then I inverted the selection and used the Blur tool to blur it all. It's still set to Color Burn at 24%. This adds a bit more vibrancy and depth to the colors round the edge, which I decided I liked.

You can see the difference here, though it's quite subtle:



Then a little text brush by masquerademaskarts (who doesn't seem to be on LJ now, or else I've got the name wrong), in a dark grey picked up from the dress, and set to Multiply 100%.



Finally, I decided to give the whole thing an outline, so selected the icon on a new blank layer and did a one or two px stroke (can't remember which, but probably one) in 46494d, set to color burn. Save for Web and Devices as .png 24, and there we are.



Here's the layers palette:



I realise I haven't been very explicit about all the steps, so if you are thinking 'How do I do a Gradient Map?' etc, do ask.