Tutorial: the making of 'midsummernight'

[awmp]

originally posted at awmp on 4/11/05

I know I'm spammy, do I care? nope.
apparently my tut poll was still open and now the votes have changed and this icon got as many votes as the former leader 'I burn for you'. maybe I should have closed the poll...
but as you have asked so nicely I explain what I did to achieve this effect and to be honest it's mostly cheating... it doesn't work for all pics...

From this
to this



General Notes:

- this is mostly cheating, the effect only works on certain colored pics

- I like to work on a 200x200 canvas and resize it in the end. it's just a thing of me.

- you should be familiar with the standard features of Photoshop

Step 01: cropping

- as the effect doesn't look all that good on facial features, I cropped it this way



Step 02: preparing

- I sharpened the pic (Filter - Sharpen - Sharpen)

- duplicated the layer twice

- desaturated the first duplicated one and set it on Soft Light mode




- I inverted the second duplicated layer (crtl+i), and set it on Luminosity mode




Step 03: Levels

- I added an adjustment layer (Levels, RGB 137, 1.10, 255)



and the result was this



Step 04: Brightness/Contrast

- I added another adjustment layer (Brigtness/Contrast -20/+27)



and the result was this



Step 05: Sharpening

- I made a new layer and pasted the whole icon merge copied in it (ctrl+shift+alt+e)

- then I sharpened this layer (Filter - Sharpen - Sharpen)



Step 06: the border

- I added a white border on the right site on a new layer



Step 07: color

- I added a new flood-filled layer on top, and set it on Screen mode with 80% opacity (the color was #AC380B)



Step 08: text

- added a text layer (font: BauerBodoniBT, size: 2pt, tracking: 300, all caps, color: #741A4B)

after rotating and replacing I got this



Step 09: gradient

- I added a light grey to dark grey linear gradient on Soft Light mode




Step 10: color balance

- I added another adjustment layer (Color Balance -56/+44/-18)



the result



used program:

- PS 7.0

used resources:

- cap made by _jems_

download:

- midsummernight psd-file

- midsummernight material-zip

if there are any questions feel free to ask. :)