This was gonna be an icon tutorial...
... On how to get from 
to
If only I hadn't been experimenting so much that I'm not 100% sure how I came to the result (and forgot to take screenshots, so it's more a draft of a tutorial.) ^^;
But I remember some people asking about a tutorial and I recall the big lines. The rest is up to the pic you're working on anyway.
Right, so as you can see, our base (crop of a screenshot of FFVII:AC) is experiencing a frustrating case of white-out. We want to see some color! Not to mention crank the contrast up. Ah, we're using an old version of PS to achieve this. Not really translatable to other programs, because you want to use selective coloring.
1. In this case, the first thing we want to do is put some definition of contrast back in. In other words, we normalize through level adjustment.
layer > new adjustment layer > levels
then simply hit 'auto'
Now it should look only a little bit washed out.
2. Next we want to add some color. Usually (when dealing with anime caps) you'd boost the saturation, but seeing as this is such a delicate base (his face easily looks yellow when you start playing with saturation :p ) we go straight to the selective coloring.
Selective coloring really depends on what the base needs, there are no preset right values. So, what we want here is to moderate that sickly green/yellowish tint, and bring out those blue eyes.
layer > new adjustment layer > selective coloring
Now, just play with the values. Ex.:
Yellow:
cyans: -8
reds: +4
yellows: +15
Neutrals:
cyans: -15
reds: +30
blues: +15
(This one is important, as it affects the pic as a whole. It's in here that I reduced most of the greenish look, but had to overdo the magenta to compensate for the yellow. It's all a matter of preference.)
If you're almost satisfied with the result, you have two options: either you hit the pic, with another, more specified, moderate selective color layer, or if you think you've slightly overdone it, just play with this layer's opacity.
3. To finish, I added another brightness/contrast layer
layer > new adjustment layer > brightness/contrast
We really don't need much more brightness, but we do want to find the right angle between contrast and light/darkness. Ex.:
brightness: -5
contrast: +10
4. Now if you're happy simple merge your layers together
layer > flatten image
5. Sometimes it works as a finishing touch to add a soft light layer, which will again give contrast, but might make your image too bright in some places and too dark in others.
layer > duplicate layer this is simply to be able to adjust opacity again
And then set the layer to 'soft light' and maybe opacity = 30%
Don't forget saving! I like to save my icons as PNG's because of the quality, but you can also get very good results in JPEG.
Tip of the day: Just experiment! It took me about 5 different times from scratch to get that icon the way I wanted it. On try #4 (I was contemplating quitting) I even tried playing around with Channel Mixer (which usually doesn't cooperate with me. It didn't, but that doesn't mean it can't work wonders for you if you happen to be adept at it.
N.B: Do you always need expensive software for icon making? NO. Sometimes your base is good enough to be made in free programs like Paint.net. My latest KH icons are made simply by getting a PrtSc off a YTvid, then cropping, sharpening a lil bit, boosting the overall saturation with like +10 and shifting the curves in RBG slightly. Then finally just add an interesting light texture (with or without text) in 'Screen' mode and done. Sure the color nuances might not come out as sophisticated (depening on how good you are with curves, I'm not), but hey, it's free and legal.
Well, if not helpful, I hope this was at least entertaining. ;) Might make a real, detailed tutorial one day.
to
If only I hadn't been experimenting so much that I'm not 100% sure how I came to the result (and forgot to take screenshots, so it's more a draft of a tutorial.) ^^;
But I remember some people asking about a tutorial and I recall the big lines. The rest is up to the pic you're working on anyway.
Right, so as you can see, our base (crop of a screenshot of FFVII:AC) is experiencing a frustrating case of white-out. We want to see some color! Not to mention crank the contrast up. Ah, we're using an old version of PS to achieve this. Not really translatable to other programs, because you want to use selective coloring.
1. In this case, the first thing we want to do is put some definition of contrast back in. In other words, we normalize through level adjustment.
layer > new adjustment layer > levels
then simply hit 'auto'
Now it should look only a little bit washed out.
2. Next we want to add some color. Usually (when dealing with anime caps) you'd boost the saturation, but seeing as this is such a delicate base (his face easily looks yellow when you start playing with saturation :p ) we go straight to the selective coloring.
Selective coloring really depends on what the base needs, there are no preset right values. So, what we want here is to moderate that sickly green/yellowish tint, and bring out those blue eyes.
layer > new adjustment layer > selective coloring
Now, just play with the values. Ex.:
Yellow:
cyans: -8
reds: +4
yellows: +15
Neutrals:
cyans: -15
reds: +30
blues: +15
(This one is important, as it affects the pic as a whole. It's in here that I reduced most of the greenish look, but had to overdo the magenta to compensate for the yellow. It's all a matter of preference.)
If you're almost satisfied with the result, you have two options: either you hit the pic, with another, more specified, moderate selective color layer, or if you think you've slightly overdone it, just play with this layer's opacity.
3. To finish, I added another brightness/contrast layer
layer > new adjustment layer > brightness/contrast
We really don't need much more brightness, but we do want to find the right angle between contrast and light/darkness. Ex.:
brightness: -5
contrast: +10
4. Now if you're happy simple merge your layers together
layer > flatten image
5. Sometimes it works as a finishing touch to add a soft light layer, which will again give contrast, but might make your image too bright in some places and too dark in others.
layer > duplicate layer this is simply to be able to adjust opacity again
And then set the layer to 'soft light' and maybe opacity = 30%
Don't forget saving! I like to save my icons as PNG's because of the quality, but you can also get very good results in JPEG.
Tip of the day: Just experiment! It took me about 5 different times from scratch to get that icon the way I wanted it. On try #4 (I was contemplating quitting) I even tried playing around with Channel Mixer (which usually doesn't cooperate with me. It didn't, but that doesn't mean it can't work wonders for you if you happen to be adept at it.
N.B: Do you always need expensive software for icon making? NO. Sometimes your base is good enough to be made in free programs like Paint.net. My latest KH icons are made simply by getting a PrtSc off a YTvid, then cropping, sharpening a lil bit, boosting the overall saturation with like +10 and shifting the curves in RBG slightly. Then finally just add an interesting light texture (with or without text) in 'Screen' mode and done. Sure the color nuances might not come out as sophisticated (depening on how good you are with curves, I'm not), but hey, it's free and legal.
Well, if not helpful, I hope this was at least entertaining. ;) Might make a real, detailed tutorial one day.