(no subject)
I'm going to apologise right now for the length of this.
I'm going from this
to this
Made in Photoshop CS2.
1. Crop your original picture.
The obvious part. Probably best if you leave any sharpening until later, but it depends if your image needs it I guess.
2. Brighten it.
Its probably a good idea to duplicate your base at this point so if it ends up too bright or looking weird, you can easily go back. Anyway. If the base is particularly dark I tend to brighten it slightly before doing anything else, it helps when you actually get around to the Screen layers part.
So, Image > Adjustments> Curves:
RGB: Input: 111, Output: 155.
Obviously that depends on your picture, you can always skip this part if your base is OK, or go to Edit> Fade Curves and lower the opacity if it ends up looking too much. Anyway, I've now got this.
3. Get rid of the blue.
I can't overstate this enough, THIS PART IS GOING TO DEPEND ON YOUR IMAGE. I'm 90% sure your image is not going to be the EXACT same blue as this one so you'll need to adjust your values to compliment your base. Not rocket science.
Anyway. Kinda cheating I know, but this tutorial by jordanlover is my favourite method of fixing blue caps. And it's ridiculously easy. The best other method I use is Variations (Image>Adjustments>Variations). The tutorial I used for that escapes me, but its not that hard either. Basically you'll want to add yellows/reds (by clicking on each square) until your image looks more natural. You might need to go darker a couple of times too, whatever you think looks best.
This is normally the part where I take a snapshot (History Tab>Camera icon at the bottom) When I've finished doing all that work on the base, I like knowing I can easily get back to that point when if I screw up. You could always duplicate your layer again, but there's less clutter this way.
Now I'm somewhere around here.
4. Screen layers.
Again, depends on your image. Duplicate your layer, set it to screen, adjust the opacity to your liking, repeat as necessary.
A couple of things though. If you need to do any sharpening, this is the place I suggest you do it (Though I should point out, not necessarily right now, I always leave it until last). I find sharpening the screened layer looks a lot less severe than sharpening the base, and I normally use the Unsharp Mask (Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask).
The values I used were:
Amount: 15
Radius: 1.0
Threshold: 0
You can always go to Edit>Fade if it's too much, or up those values if it's not enough.
One other thing I've taken to doing lately is using a really over blurred screen layer with a really low Fill level. So, duplicate and set to Screen, set the Fill level to 30%, go to Filter>Gaussian Blur and set the radius to something like 9.0. It's subtle, but it can really help soften it if your base has a lot of detail and starts looking oversharpened.
So, just to avoid any confusion, now I've got four layers. The original shockingly blue base, the colour corrected one, a (soon to be sharpened) Screen layer and a blurred Screen layer. And we're looking something like this.
Still with me? OK.
5. Colouring.
Everyone and his wife does this these days I know, but I started with a dark brown exclusion layer. Something along the lines of #321d14. The main reason I like this is that it takes out a lot of the contrast, which sounds like a strange thing to say but it's a whole lot easier to put it back in once your done than the other way around.
So, now we have this.
Then, because I'm apparently a super lazy icon maker, I use a Selective Colour layer and set it Soft Light. On this icon I didn't put any values in, if your colours are looking weird you might want to. I love doing this, it can really bump up the colours and puts some contrast back in.
It's looking a little too red to me, so I used a Colour Burn layer (#e2faff, 50% opacity) just to put some blue back in and knock the red down a bit.
Now, my absolute favourite thing to use right now are Photo Filter layers. They really easily warm/cool your image depending on the density and opacity you use and I just think its a generally underrated tool. So, Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Photo Filter, here I used Deep Emerald (density 25%, Preserve Luminosity Checked) again it just takes out some of the redness.
Team Shep are looking a bit washed out now though. So I used another Photo Filter Layer (Warming Filter 81, density 25%, Preserve Luminosity checked) to, well. Warm them up a bit. No point taking out all that blue if we're going to end up putting it back in again.
Right. Needs more colour. Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Hue/Saturation: Master Saturation +25. Really depends on your image that.
6. Textures and contrast.
Almost done, promise. I'm generally not a big textures person, but normally when I want to add contrast back into my icons I use a fairly simple grainy texture, like this one by toybirds, and set it to colour burn. The fact that it's grey means it'll enhance the colouring you've already done, and the texture's subtle enough not to overwhelm your image.
I still wanted a little more contrast though, so I added a Levels layer (Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Levels) at 40% opacity, and used these values:
Input: 18, 0.93, 244
Output: 0, 255
Again, subtle. It just deepens the black a little to give it more depth. And this is the part where I'd do that sharpening I waffled on about a while back.
And that's it! I'd appreciate it if you left any comments at the original entry, feel free to ask any questions there too :)
I'm going from this
to this
Made in Photoshop CS2.
1. Crop your original picture.
The obvious part. Probably best if you leave any sharpening until later, but it depends if your image needs it I guess.
2. Brighten it.
Its probably a good idea to duplicate your base at this point so if it ends up too bright or looking weird, you can easily go back. Anyway. If the base is particularly dark I tend to brighten it slightly before doing anything else, it helps when you actually get around to the Screen layers part.
So, Image > Adjustments> Curves:
RGB: Input: 111, Output: 155.
Obviously that depends on your picture, you can always skip this part if your base is OK, or go to Edit> Fade Curves and lower the opacity if it ends up looking too much. Anyway, I've now got this.
3. Get rid of the blue.
I can't overstate this enough, THIS PART IS GOING TO DEPEND ON YOUR IMAGE. I'm 90% sure your image is not going to be the EXACT same blue as this one so you'll need to adjust your values to compliment your base. Not rocket science.
Anyway. Kinda cheating I know, but this tutorial by jordanlover is my favourite method of fixing blue caps. And it's ridiculously easy. The best other method I use is Variations (Image>Adjustments>Variations). The tutorial I used for that escapes me, but its not that hard either. Basically you'll want to add yellows/reds (by clicking on each square) until your image looks more natural. You might need to go darker a couple of times too, whatever you think looks best.
This is normally the part where I take a snapshot (History Tab>Camera icon at the bottom) When I've finished doing all that work on the base, I like knowing I can easily get back to that point when if I screw up. You could always duplicate your layer again, but there's less clutter this way.
Now I'm somewhere around here.
4. Screen layers.
Again, depends on your image. Duplicate your layer, set it to screen, adjust the opacity to your liking, repeat as necessary.
A couple of things though. If you need to do any sharpening, this is the place I suggest you do it (Though I should point out, not necessarily right now, I always leave it until last). I find sharpening the screened layer looks a lot less severe than sharpening the base, and I normally use the Unsharp Mask (Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask).
The values I used were:
Amount: 15
Radius: 1.0
Threshold: 0
You can always go to Edit>Fade if it's too much, or up those values if it's not enough.
One other thing I've taken to doing lately is using a really over blurred screen layer with a really low Fill level. So, duplicate and set to Screen, set the Fill level to 30%, go to Filter>Gaussian Blur and set the radius to something like 9.0. It's subtle, but it can really help soften it if your base has a lot of detail and starts looking oversharpened.
So, just to avoid any confusion, now I've got four layers. The original shockingly blue base, the colour corrected one, a (soon to be sharpened) Screen layer and a blurred Screen layer. And we're looking something like this.
Still with me? OK.
5. Colouring.
Everyone and his wife does this these days I know, but I started with a dark brown exclusion layer. Something along the lines of #321d14. The main reason I like this is that it takes out a lot of the contrast, which sounds like a strange thing to say but it's a whole lot easier to put it back in once your done than the other way around.
So, now we have this.
Then, because I'm apparently a super lazy icon maker, I use a Selective Colour layer and set it Soft Light. On this icon I didn't put any values in, if your colours are looking weird you might want to. I love doing this, it can really bump up the colours and puts some contrast back in.
It's looking a little too red to me, so I used a Colour Burn layer (#e2faff, 50% opacity) just to put some blue back in and knock the red down a bit.
Now, my absolute favourite thing to use right now are Photo Filter layers. They really easily warm/cool your image depending on the density and opacity you use and I just think its a generally underrated tool. So, Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Photo Filter, here I used Deep Emerald (density 25%, Preserve Luminosity Checked) again it just takes out some of the redness.
Team Shep are looking a bit washed out now though. So I used another Photo Filter Layer (Warming Filter 81, density 25%, Preserve Luminosity checked) to, well. Warm them up a bit. No point taking out all that blue if we're going to end up putting it back in again.
Right. Needs more colour. Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Hue/Saturation: Master Saturation +25. Really depends on your image that.
6. Textures and contrast.
Almost done, promise. I'm generally not a big textures person, but normally when I want to add contrast back into my icons I use a fairly simple grainy texture, like this one by toybirds, and set it to colour burn. The fact that it's grey means it'll enhance the colouring you've already done, and the texture's subtle enough not to overwhelm your image.
I still wanted a little more contrast though, so I added a Levels layer (Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Levels) at 40% opacity, and used these values:
Input: 18, 0.93, 244
Output: 0, 255
Again, subtle. It just deepens the black a little to give it more depth. And this is the part where I'd do that sharpening I waffled on about a while back.
And that's it! I'd appreciate it if you left any comments at the original entry, feel free to ask any questions there too :)