2011 - %extra - q&a
Icon Talk Q&A: Questions Answered
The following is a response to questions that were asked at icon_talk's Ask the Maker meme, as well as others that have collected over time. I've tried to answer them to the best of my ability, but I do realise my ability may not be the best there is. I am also sorry for two things: my overuse of the word 'colour', and my rambling nature. Neither can be cured. In any case - I do hope those who asked questions (and those who did not) find something useful in here!
Which are the steps/options in PS which you always do/use?
If you read any of my crazy long tutorials, there's a base prep step that I always do on icons. There's also a finishing off step that I always do in variations. I personally find it easier to work with an image that is a little softer, brighter and more contrasted to begin with. It also helps to sometimes show some of the more natural colours of the icon, or highlight where I need to play with variations a little depending on the direction I'm taking.
What option do you use to emphasize a specific color you want on your icon?
I suppose the tool is entirely dependent on the colour I want to work with. Curves, Colour Balance and Selective Colour are really good for breaking up individual colours (or opposing colours? IDK, curves and colour balance work with opposites) and then working to play with them. I've also taken to using Channel Mixer recently, which is actually really fun. Especially if you want to subtly play with a colour or alternatives, really one tone an image. good_tutorial has some wonderful tutorials which focus solely on how each of these tools work.
I also sometimes use textures or 'colour blobs' to create colour in icons as well. The question below asks how I'm using light/color/brushes now, which is basically what I call 'colour blobs', so I'll discuss that below, but I can talk a little bit about how I use textures to add colour here.
The dark purple/blue tones in this icon were created pretty entirely through the use of textures. Initially, I used this texture (by emmahyphenjane @ killcolor), by playing around with it a bit. It was duplicated and each image was overlayed and then stretched out and then set to Soft Light at 100%. It was quite dark because of this, so I used this texture (also by emmahyphenjane) and played around with it in the same manner, before setting it to Screen at 100%. So while it didn't necessarily add colour, the texture lightened up the image while preserving the purple tones from the previous texture.
The red and green tones in this icon were also created through textures - although the green is more about an additional curves layer, as the texture used was blue. But it was still combined with the texture use that the icon colours happened. I didn't want the area around the character to be vast and black, so I played around with this texture by shoqolad. It created some lovely red edges. The center was still quite dark though, so I added this texture, also by shoqolad. It added some blue tones to the center of the icon, which I then played with to create the green tones. The original image looked like this, but it was still quite dark in the center, so while it was on a large canvas, I created a smaller canvas and used the red/green/blue part of the image as a background, then added the character as the focal point, which I suppose is another way to play up colour in the icon. Create a background from scratch!
In summary: there are a vast number of ways to add colour into an image. In the end it all comes down to the tools you want to use to achieve this. It's all a matter of personal preference really.
Talk to me about how you are using light/color/brushes in your icons now. Do you find it opens up new doors and new things to do with your icons? Am I totally making things up, you're not actually using brushes, and you want to share what super cool tool you are using?
WHERE TO BEGIN? Yes, I am using brushes (generally in conjunction with textures) and yes I feel its opened up new doors for me, especially in terms of subtle colour and glowing soft icons. I wish there was a magical tool, but I don't think that's been invented yet, although the filter discussion below could be in some part to blame! I think what I've found myself using brushes mostly for these days is to enhance individual colours without necessarily playing around with the layer filters. I have pictorial evidence to discuss though, so my words make more sense and logic than not. As an added bonus, neither of these icons have any texture work involved whatsoever. So any pretty light is solely based around brush + colour work.
I think with this icon, there were so many beautiful bright colours in the images that I saw using brushes to add colour as the only conceivable option. I wouldn't ever find a texture that worked completely, because it's like a rainbow of colours right off the bat. However it was quite dark originally, so I used a couple of brush layers to help lighten parts of the image up first. I used a light neutral tone to give their facial features some lightness, and some darker colours that were similar to the colours in the background on screen to really brighten up the rest of the image, until it looked like this.
Then (after a curves + vibrance layer), it was time to really work on bringing out the colours. I used 6 individual layers with 6 different colours to bring out everything that was in the image. Two yellow, red, magenta, green and blue were used in to really make the icon fun and light and rainbow-esque. I honestly think this is an icon where textures wouldn't have been able to achieve the same result. I needed to be finicky about where the colours when and how far each bit covered to allow them to blend with the background image but still achieve the vibrant result.
This is an icon that definitely needed the finesse of brush layers to add light and colour to the image, rather than texture use. This is where I was at after I'd finished colouring. While its not bad, I felt a bit eh about it. Nothing really stood out to me, and there was so much potential for colour to be added to the image. So that's what I did. Namely in the background, because I wanted to really highlight Amy as the focal point.
It has 9 layers of brush work, ranging from yellow (to focus on on her hair and make it shiny, because it IS shiny!) to blue (light AND dark, as I really to make the background become richer in colour) to magenta (because it's in the image, but I wanted to really highlight it more). I think being able to be really selective about how intense the colour I used was, where exactly I placed the colour and the ways in which I blurred and the layer settings and opacity really made all the difference for this icon, because again, textures would haven't achieved the same effect.
I love how soft and colorful your coloring in general is ( example, example), is there anything you can tell me about achieving that?
- I never use Vibrancy on 100 unless it doesn't destroy completely the quality of the image. I'm going to talk about this point below, but I've found it can
generally pixelate the image you are using and sort of ruin it completely.
- I don't often use Soft Light layers, and when I do, they are generally on below 50% opacity. absolutelybatty is queen of all things contrast and soft
light, but I find when I use it intensely, the shadows of my colours become too shadowey. So I avoid doing such things.
- I think my base prep actually contributes a lot to the softness of the icons, and I've recently lessened the opacity of my final sharpen layer as well. I used to set it on 100%, but sometimes it's as low as 30-40% depending on the image. That's not entirely related to the colouring, but I think it does effect the overall softness of it.
- I think the texture work in the first icon had a lot to do with the soft feel. It uses this texture by motorized to really highlight the background, I'm fairly sure it's set to screen on a low opacity, so that really may have helped the softness of the colours work together.
- I definitely play around with the opacity of my colour layers. Sometimes I add some intense colour to the image, but decide it's too much, so I lower the opacity. I find it much easier to slowly build colour up for an icon rather than add it all in one go. Which means I'm more likely to have 5 layers that probably could have been achieved in 1 or 2, but that's how I have my tendency to work.
Using Filters in Photoshop CS5:
(In which I explain my use of filters with visual aid!)
I promised absolutelybatty I would talk about this forever an a day ago, so here I am. It's in relation to this icon, which uses some (if not all) of these filters. I basically use them sporadically, whenever the mood hits. Some batches will have them used often, other times I'll forget completely about them and then remember and think 'Why the heck am I not using that still?' So this is a basic discussion as to what I use each filter for. I'm using this as my base image. I like the detail it has. And the colour.
Filter > Artistic > Cutout:
Number of Levels: 8
Edge Simplicity: 0
Edge Fidelity: 3
Our image now looks like this. I like playing with this filter. It gives a cartoonish feel to the image that really adds some texture when you lower the opacity or mask away areas from where you want to keep the focus. I'm definitely sure it was used on the icon mentioned above, as well as in this icon to help achieve the background effect. Even with a lower opacity ( 50% opacity) the filter still adds this wonderful feel to the background of the icon (which is clearly what I generally use the filter for).
Filter > Artistic > Paint Daubs:
Brush Size: 10.
Sharpness: 0.
Brush Type: Simple.
Our image now looks like this. I think what I love most about Paint Daubs is that it's like creating a texture from the image you are using. Set it to screen or soft light and you have a wonderfully soft glowy image that has some lovely colours in it; lower the opacity ( 50% opacity) and you have this lovely soft glowing background. It's just a lot of fun to play around with.
Filter > Blur > Box Blur:
Radius: 10 pixels.
Our image now looks like this. Box blur is basically like Gaussian Blur on speed. Except it does this awesome sort of boxed blur in small segments across the image. I have a feeling if I ever branched out into texture making I would be using it on 25ish pixels to make some wonderful light textures. But currently, it's used all of the time on my icons in the base prep, on a very low opacity, ( 15% opacity). I find it just adds this lovey hazy feel to my icons recently that I've come to adore.
Filter > Blur > Surface Blur:
Radius: 5 pixels.
Threshold: 5 levels.
Our image now looks like this. I think I like surface blur because it's a toned down version of Smart Blur. IDK. It apparently preserves the edges and takes away noise or graininess. At times I think I could use it on a higher opacity than what I currently do ( 25% opacity) or even more often throughout the icon making process, rather than in the very initial stages. I also like the soft, oiled painting finish it can give.
Filter > Brush Strokes > Angled Strokes:
Direction Balance: 50.
Stroke Length: 25.
Sharpness: 0.
Our image now looks like this. This filter is something I generally use in conjunction with another filter, which is generally paint daubs. Again, I like the textured look it can create, which can be sharpened dramatically if you do play with the sharpness. I prefer my hazy icons though, so the lack of sharpness plays right into that. If you lower the opacity ( 50% opacity) I think that the look is a little softer, but it can still work to provide that textured feel that I utilized it for in the first place.
Filter > Brush Strokes > Cross Hatch:
Stroke Length: 25.
Sharpness: 1.
Strength: 2.
Our image now looks like this. For me this is a more organised filter than Angled Strokes, and it can look quite similar while looking vastly different. It works with the sort of box concept that Box Blur has, and I tend to use it both by itself and with other filters equally. In lowering the opacity ( 50% opacity) the overall effect is sort of glowy rather than strokey. I'd probably lower the opacity a little more if I were focusing on facial features (or even layer mask it away) but I definitely enjoy the soft feeling it gives the image.
While writing this, I realised how little I actually knew about Filters in Photoshop so I did a little research and came up with this. It's a very brief summary of what each filter does, but I found it incredibly helpful in terms of voicing what I liked about each filter.
PS CS5 - an absolutelybatty proof edition!
I also promised absolutelybatty that I'd talk about some of the features that existed within CS5, namely Vibrance and Black & White. I'm sure there are other tools, but I don't play with them, and therefore couldn't flail about them appropriately.
Vibrance: Because I couldn't find the words, google did for me:
Vibrance: Adjusts the saturation so that clipping is minimized as colors approach full saturation. This setting changes the saturation of all lower-saturated colors with less effect on the higher-saturated colors. Vibrance also prevents skin tones from becoming oversaturated.
For me, vibrance allows me to brighten all the colours that are existent within the image. That's it. There's no grand idea behind vibrance for me. There's no tricks or secrets that I'm hoarding (LOL!) I swear, the answer is that simple. What it also allows me to do, is play with the colours without over-saturating them slightly too much. That's something for later though.
But I digress. What does vibrancy do? I have pictorial evidence of what it does. We are working with this image because 1. It's terribly pretty and 2. I love the colours that are already showing themselves (and I like using vibrance best when it comes to caps with stunning colours like this one!)
One layer with Vibrance at 50.
One layer with Vibrance at 100.
Two layers with Vibrance at 100.
Let's talk about what these examples reveal.
1. Vibrance can easily destroy the image. The original image isn't bad in terms of quality, but a couple of full strength vibrance layers cause pixelation and over-saturation in many areas.
2. Sometimes less is more. Even one layer with vibrance at 100 causes some of the slight pixelation that is completely evident in the third image. It's especially noticeable in her hair and on her arm. I think for this image, one layer with vibrance at 50 is perfect for now. It really draws out the colours that are in the image but doesn't destroy the image quality.
3. As stated above, it doesn't change the skin tone all that much. I played around with a Hue/Saturation layer, and found that while the results were quite similar, I felt the colours were a little too bold for my liking. Not bad, just bold for now. In summary? I view Vibrance as a little easier to control.
Another picture example, because I can. We are using this Misfits cap this time, because Misfits has (quite possibly) the dullest colours ever in existence. So adding colour to the images can be hard. This is my result after one layer with Vibrance at 100. As you can see, the image quality is already failing a little. But that's okay, because the vibrance has already added the colour into the image that I needed. I can smooth the image out using one of the many tools available, or I can wait, add some more colour and then try to smooth out the faults of the image.
Does that help to unravel some of the mysteries surrounding vibrance? PROBABLY NOT! But hopefully it's at least introduced you to the world of vibrance, and taken the edge off?
Black & White:
Let's talk about why I love Black & White. It's like de-saturating your image but with options! And with those options comes great power. Point illustrated below:
SEE. THE. VARIETY! Love the variety. It's like all my Christmases coming at once. And the variety works on Soft Light as well. So if I wanted to draw out a certain colour in an icon using a Black & White soft light layer? I pick my poison! It also works to highlight the foreground, background, both or neither. I'm doing a very poor job of explaining why I love this tool so, but I think the image example really does it justice. I also think it's something that you definitely need to play around with and become accustomed to in your own time. I promise that it IS worth exploring though.
THE END.
Any further questions? Ask away! Up next eventually: A Guide to working with Glee!
The following is a response to questions that were asked at icon_talk's Ask the Maker meme, as well as others that have collected over time. I've tried to answer them to the best of my ability, but I do realise my ability may not be the best there is. I am also sorry for two things: my overuse of the word 'colour', and my rambling nature. Neither can be cured. In any case - I do hope those who asked questions (and those who did not) find something useful in here!
Which are the steps/options in PS which you always do/use?
If you read any of my crazy long tutorials, there's a base prep step that I always do on icons. There's also a finishing off step that I always do in variations. I personally find it easier to work with an image that is a little softer, brighter and more contrasted to begin with. It also helps to sometimes show some of the more natural colours of the icon, or highlight where I need to play with variations a little depending on the direction I'm taking.
What option do you use to emphasize a specific color you want on your icon?
I suppose the tool is entirely dependent on the colour I want to work with. Curves, Colour Balance and Selective Colour are really good for breaking up individual colours (or opposing colours? IDK, curves and colour balance work with opposites) and then working to play with them. I've also taken to using Channel Mixer recently, which is actually really fun. Especially if you want to subtly play with a colour or alternatives, really one tone an image. good_tutorial has some wonderful tutorials which focus solely on how each of these tools work.
I also sometimes use textures or 'colour blobs' to create colour in icons as well. The question below asks how I'm using light/color/brushes now, which is basically what I call 'colour blobs', so I'll discuss that below, but I can talk a little bit about how I use textures to add colour here.
The dark purple/blue tones in this icon were created pretty entirely through the use of textures. Initially, I used this texture (by emmahyphenjane @ killcolor), by playing around with it a bit. It was duplicated and each image was overlayed and then stretched out and then set to Soft Light at 100%. It was quite dark because of this, so I used this texture (also by emmahyphenjane) and played around with it in the same manner, before setting it to Screen at 100%. So while it didn't necessarily add colour, the texture lightened up the image while preserving the purple tones from the previous texture.
The red and green tones in this icon were also created through textures - although the green is more about an additional curves layer, as the texture used was blue. But it was still combined with the texture use that the icon colours happened. I didn't want the area around the character to be vast and black, so I played around with this texture by shoqolad. It created some lovely red edges. The center was still quite dark though, so I added this texture, also by shoqolad. It added some blue tones to the center of the icon, which I then played with to create the green tones. The original image looked like this, but it was still quite dark in the center, so while it was on a large canvas, I created a smaller canvas and used the red/green/blue part of the image as a background, then added the character as the focal point, which I suppose is another way to play up colour in the icon. Create a background from scratch!
In summary: there are a vast number of ways to add colour into an image. In the end it all comes down to the tools you want to use to achieve this. It's all a matter of personal preference really.
Talk to me about how you are using light/color/brushes in your icons now. Do you find it opens up new doors and new things to do with your icons? Am I totally making things up, you're not actually using brushes, and you want to share what super cool tool you are using?
WHERE TO BEGIN? Yes, I am using brushes (generally in conjunction with textures) and yes I feel its opened up new doors for me, especially in terms of subtle colour and glowing soft icons. I wish there was a magical tool, but I don't think that's been invented yet, although the filter discussion below could be in some part to blame! I think what I've found myself using brushes mostly for these days is to enhance individual colours without necessarily playing around with the layer filters. I have pictorial evidence to discuss though, so my words make more sense and logic than not. As an added bonus, neither of these icons have any texture work involved whatsoever. So any pretty light is solely based around brush + colour work.
I think with this icon, there were so many beautiful bright colours in the images that I saw using brushes to add colour as the only conceivable option. I wouldn't ever find a texture that worked completely, because it's like a rainbow of colours right off the bat. However it was quite dark originally, so I used a couple of brush layers to help lighten parts of the image up first. I used a light neutral tone to give their facial features some lightness, and some darker colours that were similar to the colours in the background on screen to really brighten up the rest of the image, until it looked like this.
Then (after a curves + vibrance layer), it was time to really work on bringing out the colours. I used 6 individual layers with 6 different colours to bring out everything that was in the image. Two yellow, red, magenta, green and blue were used in to really make the icon fun and light and rainbow-esque. I honestly think this is an icon where textures wouldn't have been able to achieve the same result. I needed to be finicky about where the colours when and how far each bit covered to allow them to blend with the background image but still achieve the vibrant result.
This is an icon that definitely needed the finesse of brush layers to add light and colour to the image, rather than texture use. This is where I was at after I'd finished colouring. While its not bad, I felt a bit eh about it. Nothing really stood out to me, and there was so much potential for colour to be added to the image. So that's what I did. Namely in the background, because I wanted to really highlight Amy as the focal point.
It has 9 layers of brush work, ranging from yellow (to focus on on her hair and make it shiny, because it IS shiny!) to blue (light AND dark, as I really to make the background become richer in colour) to magenta (because it's in the image, but I wanted to really highlight it more). I think being able to be really selective about how intense the colour I used was, where exactly I placed the colour and the ways in which I blurred and the layer settings and opacity really made all the difference for this icon, because again, textures would haven't achieved the same effect.
I love how soft and colorful your coloring in general is ( example, example), is there anything you can tell me about achieving that?
- I never use Vibrancy on 100 unless it doesn't destroy completely the quality of the image. I'm going to talk about this point below, but I've found it can
generally pixelate the image you are using and sort of ruin it completely.
- I don't often use Soft Light layers, and when I do, they are generally on below 50% opacity. absolutelybatty is queen of all things contrast and soft
light, but I find when I use it intensely, the shadows of my colours become too shadowey. So I avoid doing such things.
- I think my base prep actually contributes a lot to the softness of the icons, and I've recently lessened the opacity of my final sharpen layer as well. I used to set it on 100%, but sometimes it's as low as 30-40% depending on the image. That's not entirely related to the colouring, but I think it does effect the overall softness of it.
- I think the texture work in the first icon had a lot to do with the soft feel. It uses this texture by motorized to really highlight the background, I'm fairly sure it's set to screen on a low opacity, so that really may have helped the softness of the colours work together.
- I definitely play around with the opacity of my colour layers. Sometimes I add some intense colour to the image, but decide it's too much, so I lower the opacity. I find it much easier to slowly build colour up for an icon rather than add it all in one go. Which means I'm more likely to have 5 layers that probably could have been achieved in 1 or 2, but that's how I have my tendency to work.
Using Filters in Photoshop CS5:
(In which I explain my use of filters with visual aid!)
I promised absolutelybatty I would talk about this forever an a day ago, so here I am. It's in relation to this icon, which uses some (if not all) of these filters. I basically use them sporadically, whenever the mood hits. Some batches will have them used often, other times I'll forget completely about them and then remember and think 'Why the heck am I not using that still?' So this is a basic discussion as to what I use each filter for. I'm using this as my base image. I like the detail it has. And the colour.
Filter > Artistic > Cutout:
Number of Levels: 8
Edge Simplicity: 0
Edge Fidelity: 3
Our image now looks like this. I like playing with this filter. It gives a cartoonish feel to the image that really adds some texture when you lower the opacity or mask away areas from where you want to keep the focus. I'm definitely sure it was used on the icon mentioned above, as well as in this icon to help achieve the background effect. Even with a lower opacity ( 50% opacity) the filter still adds this wonderful feel to the background of the icon (which is clearly what I generally use the filter for).
Filter > Artistic > Paint Daubs:
Brush Size: 10.
Sharpness: 0.
Brush Type: Simple.
Our image now looks like this. I think what I love most about Paint Daubs is that it's like creating a texture from the image you are using. Set it to screen or soft light and you have a wonderfully soft glowy image that has some lovely colours in it; lower the opacity ( 50% opacity) and you have this lovely soft glowing background. It's just a lot of fun to play around with.
Filter > Blur > Box Blur:
Radius: 10 pixels.
Our image now looks like this. Box blur is basically like Gaussian Blur on speed. Except it does this awesome sort of boxed blur in small segments across the image. I have a feeling if I ever branched out into texture making I would be using it on 25ish pixels to make some wonderful light textures. But currently, it's used all of the time on my icons in the base prep, on a very low opacity, ( 15% opacity). I find it just adds this lovey hazy feel to my icons recently that I've come to adore.
Filter > Blur > Surface Blur:
Radius: 5 pixels.
Threshold: 5 levels.
Our image now looks like this. I think I like surface blur because it's a toned down version of Smart Blur. IDK. It apparently preserves the edges and takes away noise or graininess. At times I think I could use it on a higher opacity than what I currently do ( 25% opacity) or even more often throughout the icon making process, rather than in the very initial stages. I also like the soft, oiled painting finish it can give.
Filter > Brush Strokes > Angled Strokes:
Direction Balance: 50.
Stroke Length: 25.
Sharpness: 0.
Our image now looks like this. This filter is something I generally use in conjunction with another filter, which is generally paint daubs. Again, I like the textured look it can create, which can be sharpened dramatically if you do play with the sharpness. I prefer my hazy icons though, so the lack of sharpness plays right into that. If you lower the opacity ( 50% opacity) I think that the look is a little softer, but it can still work to provide that textured feel that I utilized it for in the first place.
Filter > Brush Strokes > Cross Hatch:
Stroke Length: 25.
Sharpness: 1.
Strength: 2.
Our image now looks like this. For me this is a more organised filter than Angled Strokes, and it can look quite similar while looking vastly different. It works with the sort of box concept that Box Blur has, and I tend to use it both by itself and with other filters equally. In lowering the opacity ( 50% opacity) the overall effect is sort of glowy rather than strokey. I'd probably lower the opacity a little more if I were focusing on facial features (or even layer mask it away) but I definitely enjoy the soft feeling it gives the image.
While writing this, I realised how little I actually knew about Filters in Photoshop so I did a little research and came up with this. It's a very brief summary of what each filter does, but I found it incredibly helpful in terms of voicing what I liked about each filter.
PS CS5 - an absolutelybatty proof edition!
I also promised absolutelybatty that I'd talk about some of the features that existed within CS5, namely Vibrance and Black & White. I'm sure there are other tools, but I don't play with them, and therefore couldn't flail about them appropriately.
Vibrance: Because I couldn't find the words, google did for me:
Vibrance: Adjusts the saturation so that clipping is minimized as colors approach full saturation. This setting changes the saturation of all lower-saturated colors with less effect on the higher-saturated colors. Vibrance also prevents skin tones from becoming oversaturated.
For me, vibrance allows me to brighten all the colours that are existent within the image. That's it. There's no grand idea behind vibrance for me. There's no tricks or secrets that I'm hoarding (LOL!) I swear, the answer is that simple. What it also allows me to do, is play with the colours without over-saturating them slightly too much. That's something for later though.
But I digress. What does vibrancy do? I have pictorial evidence of what it does. We are working with this image because 1. It's terribly pretty and 2. I love the colours that are already showing themselves (and I like using vibrance best when it comes to caps with stunning colours like this one!)
One layer with Vibrance at 50.
One layer with Vibrance at 100.
Two layers with Vibrance at 100.
Let's talk about what these examples reveal.
1. Vibrance can easily destroy the image. The original image isn't bad in terms of quality, but a couple of full strength vibrance layers cause pixelation and over-saturation in many areas.
2. Sometimes less is more. Even one layer with vibrance at 100 causes some of the slight pixelation that is completely evident in the third image. It's especially noticeable in her hair and on her arm. I think for this image, one layer with vibrance at 50 is perfect for now. It really draws out the colours that are in the image but doesn't destroy the image quality.
3. As stated above, it doesn't change the skin tone all that much. I played around with a Hue/Saturation layer, and found that while the results were quite similar, I felt the colours were a little too bold for my liking. Not bad, just bold for now. In summary? I view Vibrance as a little easier to control.
Another picture example, because I can. We are using this Misfits cap this time, because Misfits has (quite possibly) the dullest colours ever in existence. So adding colour to the images can be hard. This is my result after one layer with Vibrance at 100. As you can see, the image quality is already failing a little. But that's okay, because the vibrance has already added the colour into the image that I needed. I can smooth the image out using one of the many tools available, or I can wait, add some more colour and then try to smooth out the faults of the image.
Does that help to unravel some of the mysteries surrounding vibrance? PROBABLY NOT! But hopefully it's at least introduced you to the world of vibrance, and taken the edge off?
Black & White:
Let's talk about why I love Black & White. It's like de-saturating your image but with options! And with those options comes great power. Point illustrated below:
SEE. THE. VARIETY! Love the variety. It's like all my Christmases coming at once. And the variety works on Soft Light as well. So if I wanted to draw out a certain colour in an icon using a Black & White soft light layer? I pick my poison! It also works to highlight the foreground, background, both or neither. I'm doing a very poor job of explaining why I love this tool so, but I think the image example really does it justice. I also think it's something that you definitely need to play around with and become accustomed to in your own time. I promise that it IS worth exploring though.
THE END.
Any further questions? Ask away! Up next eventually: A Guide to working with Glee!