(no subject)
made in photoshop cs3; medium difficulty; psd included
+ working with dark television screencaps.
>>
* aaaayyyohhh. welcome to yet another tutorial. i've realized that a lot of my tuts come form boredom, but a lot of times i get something creative out of it. i have a nice base from house today. i totally forgot where the hell this base came from, so if it's yours, then please tell me, and i will credit you. let's get started. :)
~ first things first. get your image ready. i prefer an icon size: nice and small. to brighten it up and give a little contrast to make our picture look better, we're going to use a curves layer.
[layer > new adjustment layer > curves]
rgb:
1 - in: 42 / out: 68
2 - in: 146 / out: 160
3 - in: 212 / out: 187
~ now to make the colors more vibrant, i'm going to use color balance. i like this adjustment, it's pretty snazzy.
[layer > new adjustment layer > color balance]
midtones: -17 / -6 / -14
shadows: 14 / 1 / 3
highlights: 12 / 9 / 2
~ let's add some color fill layers to make the image look better.
[layer > new > layer]
flood fill your layer with the color #6b7c80, a grey-blue mixture, and set it to soft light at 50% opacity. now a touch of blue is included in your picture.
let's make another, this time using the color #010f12, a very dark blue, and setting it to exclusion. it adds only a little pinch of color, but still quite noticeable.
~ i love colorful icons. and a good way of making this happen is opening the infamous channel mixer adjustment. this should really spark the colors.
[layer > new adjustment layer > channel mixer]
red: 144 / -19 / -29 / constant: 2
green: 23 / 75 / 12 / constant: -4
blue: 30 / -15 / 96
this looks nice, but i really don't want that much pink. lower the opacity to 50%. muuuuch better.
~ get a nice brightness/contrast adjustment out. we are in desperate need of some depth and complexity in this photo.
[layer > new adjustment layer > brightness/contrast]
brightness: 15
contrast: 37
so much more clean and nice. however, we're still lacking color, so lets move on.
~ to motivate the pictures overall appearance, let's add some more color with a color fill layer.
[layer > new > layer]
flood fill with #2c1c01, a very dark orange. set it to exclusion. it's got a nice blue overtone now.
make another one, and flood fill with #e7e4e0, a very light orange. set it to color burn.
make yet another one~! #8c8f91, a dark grey. set it to soft light. this adds just a little bright effect.
~ i want to do some photo filters now. they're very new to me, and i think they're really helpful when dealing with color tones.
[layer > new adjustment layer > photo filter]
select the yellow filter, leave the density to 25%, and press okay. obviously, we added some yellow into it!
make another one, so we can add some more texture.
select the cyan one, leaving it at 25%. i honestly don't want blue in this picture much, so decrease the opacity to 50%. better.
~ we're nearing the end, finally. open a posterize layer. this isn't very commonly used, but i like the effect it brings.
[layer > new adjustment layer > posterize]
set the level to 48. it's not really that much of a difference, so no worries.
~ to finish off, add an exposure layer. these also deal with contrast/brightness.
[layer > new adjustment layer > exposure]
exposure: 0.44
offset: -0.0294
gamma correction: 1.16
11 ~ duplicate your base, and drag it all the way to the top. set it to luminosity at 30%, depending on your liking.
still on the base duplicate, make a high pass filter.
[filter > other > high pass]
radius: 3.5
FINISHED. interested in the psd?
please leave your comments here!
other examples:
+ working with dark television screencaps.
>>
* aaaayyyohhh. welcome to yet another tutorial. i've realized that a lot of my tuts come form boredom, but a lot of times i get something creative out of it. i have a nice base from house today. i totally forgot where the hell this base came from, so if it's yours, then please tell me, and i will credit you. let's get started. :)
~ first things first. get your image ready. i prefer an icon size: nice and small. to brighten it up and give a little contrast to make our picture look better, we're going to use a curves layer.
[layer > new adjustment layer > curves]
rgb:
1 - in: 42 / out: 68
2 - in: 146 / out: 160
3 - in: 212 / out: 187
~ now to make the colors more vibrant, i'm going to use color balance. i like this adjustment, it's pretty snazzy.
[layer > new adjustment layer > color balance]
midtones: -17 / -6 / -14
shadows: 14 / 1 / 3
highlights: 12 / 9 / 2
~ let's add some color fill layers to make the image look better.
[layer > new > layer]
flood fill your layer with the color #6b7c80, a grey-blue mixture, and set it to soft light at 50% opacity. now a touch of blue is included in your picture.
let's make another, this time using the color #010f12, a very dark blue, and setting it to exclusion. it adds only a little pinch of color, but still quite noticeable.
~ i love colorful icons. and a good way of making this happen is opening the infamous channel mixer adjustment. this should really spark the colors.
[layer > new adjustment layer > channel mixer]
red: 144 / -19 / -29 / constant: 2
green: 23 / 75 / 12 / constant: -4
blue: 30 / -15 / 96
this looks nice, but i really don't want that much pink. lower the opacity to 50%. muuuuch better.
~ get a nice brightness/contrast adjustment out. we are in desperate need of some depth and complexity in this photo.
[layer > new adjustment layer > brightness/contrast]
brightness: 15
contrast: 37
so much more clean and nice. however, we're still lacking color, so lets move on.
~ to motivate the pictures overall appearance, let's add some more color with a color fill layer.
[layer > new > layer]
flood fill with #2c1c01, a very dark orange. set it to exclusion. it's got a nice blue overtone now.
make another one, and flood fill with #e7e4e0, a very light orange. set it to color burn.
make yet another one~! #8c8f91, a dark grey. set it to soft light. this adds just a little bright effect.
~ i want to do some photo filters now. they're very new to me, and i think they're really helpful when dealing with color tones.
[layer > new adjustment layer > photo filter]
select the yellow filter, leave the density to 25%, and press okay. obviously, we added some yellow into it!
make another one, so we can add some more texture.
select the cyan one, leaving it at 25%. i honestly don't want blue in this picture much, so decrease the opacity to 50%. better.
~ we're nearing the end, finally. open a posterize layer. this isn't very commonly used, but i like the effect it brings.
[layer > new adjustment layer > posterize]
set the level to 48. it's not really that much of a difference, so no worries.
~ to finish off, add an exposure layer. these also deal with contrast/brightness.
[layer > new adjustment layer > exposure]
exposure: 0.44
offset: -0.0294
gamma correction: 1.16
11 ~ duplicate your base, and drag it all the way to the top. set it to luminosity at 30%, depending on your liking.
still on the base duplicate, make a high pass filter.
[filter > other > high pass]
radius: 3.5
FINISHED. interested in the psd?
please leave your comments here!
other examples: