Tutorial 07

[shadedcolor]

Program: Photoshop CS3
Difficulty: Medium
Translatable: Yes
PSD Included: No





0. Crop
and resize your picture.
I got my picture from lost-media.com, cropped it and resized it to 100x100.



1. Duplicate your base twice and set both copies to Screen. The first, fill at 100% and the second one, fill at 60%.
Play around with the fill and opacity. It depends on your picture; the darker the picture the higher the fill/opacity.



2. Create a new Curves Layer (Layers - New Adjustment Layer - Curves)
RGB: Input: 55, Output: 70
Green: Input: 80, Output: 65
Blue: Input: 65, Output: 45
This will brighten and emphasize the reddish part of your picture. In doing so it lays the foundation for the aimed brownish coloring.



3. Create a Color Fill Layer: # 73a69e - Set it to Multiply - Fill: 20 %
With the last step the picture turned out a little bit to red. The Color Fill Layer normalizes the color of the skin and increases the contrast. The layer does also set the basic color of the background.




4. Create a Color Fill Layer: # ebe57f - Set it to Color Burn - Fill: 20 %
Similar to step 2, this will set up the aimed brownish coloring. The Color Fill Layer turns the flat red coloring into a brownish one.




5. Merge all layers, then copy and paste (press Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E), and sharpen your new picture. I used the Smart Sharpen filter. (Filter - Sharpen - Smart Sharpen) Again, the amount depends on your picture, don't overdo it.



6. Create a Color Fill Layer: # e8f0eb - Set it to Color Burn
The new Color Fill Layer will add some contrast. Alternatively, you could use a Levels layer (Layers - New Adjustment Layer - Levels). With the settings 0 | 0,90 | 255 you get a similar effect.




7. Optional
Create a new Layer (Layer - New - Layer). Use a soft white brush (# ffffff) and stamp it on your new layer, wherever you want to lighten your picture. Set the blending mode of the layer to Soft Light - Fill: 60 %
I stamped the white brush on the left cheek to adjust the skin tone.



8. Optional
Add a light texture. Set the blending mode to Soft Light - Fill: 50 %
This step is as optional as the one before. Personally, I wanted to spiff up the background so I created a simple light texture.


Other example:


That's it, and I'd love to see your results if you try this out. :)

Originally posted over here at shadedcolor