Tutorial - Screencaps 2

As with any tutorial, this is just a guideline. Follow all the steps, skip some, add some, do whatever you want. Change the values in each step to what looks best for your image, it's probably a lot different than mine :P Feel free to ask questions!

I am using this image as a base. Unfortunately I've forgotten where it's from - I know it was one of the screencap communities on LJ though!


When working with screencaps from movies in 16x9 format (widescreen), it's often hard to get a good 100x100 crop. 100x75 seems to work well for me. It's usually a good idea to crop out the black edges. If you want to set the icon on a 100x100 background later, you'll get transparent edges to work with.

1. Crop to your desired size. You may need to sharpen your base. If you're working from a small base (like I am), be extra careful not to over-sharpen. Use the Unsharp Mask tool. My settings were Amount 44%, Radius 2.6 px, Threshold 8 px. That looked good, except there was too much sharpening on their faces. You can solve this nicely using Layer Masks, but to save time I just used the blur tool. Be careful not to blur the edges of faces (you used that sharpen tool for a reason, right?)


2. Duplicate that layer, and set to Screen, 100%.


3. Duplicate that layer, and set to Screen, 25%.


4. Duplicate that layer, and set to Soft Light, 41%.


5. Duplicate that layer and Desaturate. Then set to Soft Light, 51%.


6. Create a new adjustment layer - Selective Colour. This is one of those steps that will almost always vary from icon to icon. Use what works best for your image.


Here are my settings:

Reds

Cyan: -4%
Magenta: 19%
Yellow: -59%
Black: -4%

Yellows
Cyan: 86%
Magenta: 11%
Yellow: -10%
Black: -8%

Greens

Cyan: 0%
Magenta: 100%
Yellow: 0%
Black: 100%

Cyans

All at 0%

Blues

All at 0%

Magentas

All at 0%

Neutrals

Cyan: -27%
Magenta: 6%
Yellow: -16%
Black: -6%

Blacks

Cyan: 33%
Magenta: 19%
Yellow: 17%
Black: -18%

7. Things still look a little too yellow, so create a new layer and Fill with a blue colour, #083CB3. Set the layer to Soft Light, 24%.


8. Create a new adjustment layer again, this time using Curves. As before, this will vary from icon to icon - but I've included what was used here.




That's it! If you want the final icon to be 100x100, expand your canvas size (Image - Canvas Size). If you cropped out the black bars, you can now bring in different backgrounds to fill the new transparent space. Here's what I finished with.




For reference, here's my final layers palette!