How to soften things up - oh, the irony!
wandererjulia asked me a tutorial for this icon, but the psd was a hot mess and writing a tut would have taken me ages, so I offered her the psd instead and a guide on how to achieve that kind of soft look - which was what she was interested in, after all.
So, the psd is here, and this is a short guide on how to achieve a soft look.
I know, my icons don't look very soft - I prefer a bold contrast and a vivid coloring, not to mention a sharp quality that is probably the opposite of softness... but nevermind.
I know the theory. Sort of.
I didn't want things to sound too abstract, so I made an icon using all the techniques I know of and use to soften things up.
We're going from:
to:
JUST AN AUTO-CURVES LAYER
>
First step is always Auto-curves. I'm becoming so freakingly lazy that if Auto-Curves don't work and the cap isn't just plain gorgeous, I throw away the icon without a second thought.
BEST FRIEND #1: THE BLUR TOOL
>
The Blur tool comes in handy when you're not working with a HQ cap, and especially if you want to make a medium/close crop.
The advantage of using the Blur tool instead of the Gaussian & Surface Blur Filters is that you can blur just the grainy/pixelly areas, leaving the rest of the picture untouched. Of course you can also use Gaussian/Surface Blur and then mask the layer, but it usually takes longer.
However, here is a general advice: use Gaussian/Surface Blur when the whole picture is grainy/pixelly, and use the Blur tool when there are only small/limited areas that need to be softened.
To blur, I usually choose a soft round brush and as for the opacity I'd say between 35% and 65%, depending on the cap and on how smooth I want things to be. On, and it also depends on the area I'm blurring: when working with backgrounds I usually raise the opacity of the Blur tool a lot - even 100%, if needed.
Back to my picture, I created a new layer and picked the Blur tool with the Sample All Layers feature checked. I zoomed in a little and blurred what needed to be blurred:
>
>
BEST FRIEND #2: TEXTURES/SCREEN COMBO
>
I picked this texture by fprintmoon (Hi Sally! <3):
And I set it to Screen, then lowered the opacity to 27%.
Setting textures like that to Screen really helps to make things look soft, because they lessen the contrast and they also add some colours to your picture.
General advices:
- don't pick overly bright textures, and if you do, lower the opacity a lot: you want to soften the contrast, not to pimp up the highlights and say goodbye to shadows;
- in choosing the texture, try to figure out which kind of hues you want to add to the icon: don't pick a red texture if you're going for a cold coloring;
- pick a b/w texture if you want to work on the lighting/contrast and leave the colours unthouched;
- pay attention to the highlights/shadows scheme of the texture you pick: setting it to Screen will change the lighting of your icon and you have to be careful if you're working with close crops and the likes.
Btw, you may want to snag the set I picked this texture from. It's just stunning and I'm using it on everything.
BEST FRIEND #3: WHITE BLOBS/NORMAL COMBO
>
This is how this layer looks against a black background:
I used a soft round brush, painted some white spots here and there and set the layer to Normal, 25 % opacity. This is another useful trick to soften the contrast, but only in limited areas. More often than not, we're talking about hair.
I suggest you not to paint light blobs on people's faces, because it changes the lighting in strange ways and make the subject look weird.
BEST FRIEND #4: FAKE SOLID BACKGROUND
>
Sometimes it helps to replace the background. In this case, the background didn't look very soft, so I just painted over it. I used my favourite brush and wasn't very accurate on purpose: I wanted the edges of November to be a tad blurry, because sharp, defined edges don't look very soft obviously. Don't worry about the colour you pick, I usually pick a random colour from my image and once I'm done with the brush work I just go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation and play with the three sliders (Hue, Saturation, Brightness) till I'm satisfied with it.
BEST FRIEND #5: RANDOM BLOBS/NORMAL COMBO
>
>
White isn't the only option available for blobs. I often pick a colour from my image with the Eyedropper tool and choose a lighter shade of the same hue to paint my blobs.
&
For both layers I used a pale beige, but on the first one I used Motion Blur and its effect on Normal was so subtle that I didn't lower the opacity. The second one is set to Normal as well, but at 50% opacity.
BEST FRIEND #6: RANDOM BLOBS/SOFT LIGHT COMBO
>
>
Blobs can be useful to brighten/darken specific areas, and also to enhance the colors of some details, for example. I pick the color of the blobs accordingly.
&
I used those two layer to make small changes to her hair, and I set them both to Soft Light - at 100% and 67% opacity, respectively.
RANDOM BLOBS/NORMAL COMBO IS BACK
>
Nothing much to add, just some more painting on her hair to soften the contrast.
(Normal, 49% opacity)
A CURVES LAYER, WHAT IS HE DOING HERE?
>
Yes, Curves layers are male, deal with it. As well as Vibrance is definitely a woman. And Channel Mixer is- Nevermind.
So, Curves. Just because you want your icon to look soft doesn't mean that contrast is an optional. However, softness is about building the coloring and contrast gradually, in my opinion. This is why each step is very subtle and doesn't do much :D
HAVE YOU JUST SHARPENED THE ICON?
>
>
Yes, I have. Because in my opinion soft doesn't necessarily mean blurry. I used Paint Daubs, because this is how I've been shapening my icons lately.
However, I also masked this layer a bit:
>
>
BEST FRIEND #7: THE SMUDGE TOOL
>
The Smudge tool is very useful to even out the background and to soften the edges, especially.
>
>
Any brush will do, I usually pick a soft round brush at 60-100% opacity.
CONTRAST & COLORING, NOTHING INTERESTING
>
>
I used anther Auto-Curves layer to check the contrast and then a Color Balance layer to add some warm hues back. This tut isn't about the coloring, so if you're interested in the settings you can just check the psd :)
FINAL TOUCH
>
Just some more blurring.
>
>
DOWNLOAD AREA
- Vibrance free
BONUS: ANOTHER EXAMPLE
>
>
>
>
First of all I used the Blur tool and the Smudge tool on her hat, because it was very pixelly. Then I used a couple of textures set to Screen to brighten the picture, soften the contrast and enhance the warm hues of the cap. I'm quite sure I pasted this texture by innocent_lexys into my canvas twice and move it around a bit, like this:
&
I may have also smudged/modified the second one a bit, from the look of it.
And finally, I used Auto-Curves to check the contrast.
DOWNLOAD AREA
- PS CS4+
- Vibrance free
So, the psd is here, and this is a short guide on how to achieve a soft look.
I know, my icons don't look very soft - I prefer a bold contrast and a vivid coloring, not to mention a sharp quality that is probably the opposite of softness... but nevermind.
I know the theory. Sort of.
I didn't want things to sound too abstract, so I made an icon using all the techniques I know of and use to soften things up.
We're going from:
to:
JUST AN AUTO-CURVES LAYER
>
First step is always Auto-curves. I'm becoming so freakingly lazy that if Auto-Curves don't work and the cap isn't just plain gorgeous, I throw away the icon without a second thought.
BEST FRIEND #1: THE BLUR TOOL
>
The Blur tool comes in handy when you're not working with a HQ cap, and especially if you want to make a medium/close crop.
The advantage of using the Blur tool instead of the Gaussian & Surface Blur Filters is that you can blur just the grainy/pixelly areas, leaving the rest of the picture untouched. Of course you can also use Gaussian/Surface Blur and then mask the layer, but it usually takes longer.
However, here is a general advice: use Gaussian/Surface Blur when the whole picture is grainy/pixelly, and use the Blur tool when there are only small/limited areas that need to be softened.
To blur, I usually choose a soft round brush and as for the opacity I'd say between 35% and 65%, depending on the cap and on how smooth I want things to be. On, and it also depends on the area I'm blurring: when working with backgrounds I usually raise the opacity of the Blur tool a lot - even 100%, if needed.
Back to my picture, I created a new layer and picked the Blur tool with the Sample All Layers feature checked. I zoomed in a little and blurred what needed to be blurred:
>
>
BEST FRIEND #2: TEXTURES/SCREEN COMBO
>
I picked this texture by fprintmoon (Hi Sally! <3):
And I set it to Screen, then lowered the opacity to 27%.
Setting textures like that to Screen really helps to make things look soft, because they lessen the contrast and they also add some colours to your picture.
General advices:
- don't pick overly bright textures, and if you do, lower the opacity a lot: you want to soften the contrast, not to pimp up the highlights and say goodbye to shadows;
- in choosing the texture, try to figure out which kind of hues you want to add to the icon: don't pick a red texture if you're going for a cold coloring;
- pick a b/w texture if you want to work on the lighting/contrast and leave the colours unthouched;
- pay attention to the highlights/shadows scheme of the texture you pick: setting it to Screen will change the lighting of your icon and you have to be careful if you're working with close crops and the likes.
Btw, you may want to snag the set I picked this texture from. It's just stunning and I'm using it on everything.
BEST FRIEND #3: WHITE BLOBS/NORMAL COMBO
>
This is how this layer looks against a black background:
I used a soft round brush, painted some white spots here and there and set the layer to Normal, 25 % opacity. This is another useful trick to soften the contrast, but only in limited areas. More often than not, we're talking about hair.
I suggest you not to paint light blobs on people's faces, because it changes the lighting in strange ways and make the subject look weird.
BEST FRIEND #4: FAKE SOLID BACKGROUND
>
Sometimes it helps to replace the background. In this case, the background didn't look very soft, so I just painted over it. I used my favourite brush and wasn't very accurate on purpose: I wanted the edges of November to be a tad blurry, because sharp, defined edges don't look very soft obviously. Don't worry about the colour you pick, I usually pick a random colour from my image and once I'm done with the brush work I just go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation and play with the three sliders (Hue, Saturation, Brightness) till I'm satisfied with it.
BEST FRIEND #5: RANDOM BLOBS/NORMAL COMBO
>
>
White isn't the only option available for blobs. I often pick a colour from my image with the Eyedropper tool and choose a lighter shade of the same hue to paint my blobs.
&
For both layers I used a pale beige, but on the first one I used Motion Blur and its effect on Normal was so subtle that I didn't lower the opacity. The second one is set to Normal as well, but at 50% opacity.
BEST FRIEND #6: RANDOM BLOBS/SOFT LIGHT COMBO
>
>
Blobs can be useful to brighten/darken specific areas, and also to enhance the colors of some details, for example. I pick the color of the blobs accordingly.
&
I used those two layer to make small changes to her hair, and I set them both to Soft Light - at 100% and 67% opacity, respectively.
RANDOM BLOBS/NORMAL COMBO IS BACK
>
Nothing much to add, just some more painting on her hair to soften the contrast.
(Normal, 49% opacity)
A CURVES LAYER, WHAT IS HE DOING HERE?
>
Yes, Curves layers are male, deal with it. As well as Vibrance is definitely a woman. And Channel Mixer is- Nevermind.
So, Curves. Just because you want your icon to look soft doesn't mean that contrast is an optional. However, softness is about building the coloring and contrast gradually, in my opinion. This is why each step is very subtle and doesn't do much :D
HAVE YOU JUST SHARPENED THE ICON?
>
>
Yes, I have. Because in my opinion soft doesn't necessarily mean blurry. I used Paint Daubs, because this is how I've been shapening my icons lately.
However, I also masked this layer a bit:
>
>
BEST FRIEND #7: THE SMUDGE TOOL
>
The Smudge tool is very useful to even out the background and to soften the edges, especially.
>
>
Any brush will do, I usually pick a soft round brush at 60-100% opacity.
CONTRAST & COLORING, NOTHING INTERESTING
>
>
I used anther Auto-Curves layer to check the contrast and then a Color Balance layer to add some warm hues back. This tut isn't about the coloring, so if you're interested in the settings you can just check the psd :)
FINAL TOUCH
>
Just some more blurring.
>
>
DOWNLOAD AREA
- Vibrance free
BONUS: ANOTHER EXAMPLE
>
>
>
>
First of all I used the Blur tool and the Smudge tool on her hat, because it was very pixelly. Then I used a couple of textures set to Screen to brighten the picture, soften the contrast and enhance the warm hues of the cap. I'm quite sure I pasted this texture by innocent_lexys into my canvas twice and move it around a bit, like this:
&
I may have also smudged/modified the second one a bit, from the look of it.
And finally, I used Auto-Curves to check the contrast.
DOWNLOAD AREA
- PS CS4+
- Vibrance free