Tutorial -- Exclusion and Coloring Layers
Coloring tut ft. Choi Minho
6-7 steps
Translatable (uses curves)
Medium difficulty
Program: PS7
Image/text heavy
PSD included
Beginning Notes: This tutorial for now works best for banners and the like. I mostly use this technique-and variations of it when I make ipod wallpapers and banners in general. If you want to use it to make icons, I say go for it, but please be aware that this tut is not made with icons in mind.
Choosing images: Choosing an image is tricky, especially when there’s an image you really want as a banner or wallpaper but the quality, for lack of a better word, sucks. When I make graphics, I’m a bit of a snob in that I generally tend to choose already HQ [high quality] pictures. HQ images are generally not only clear and crisp, they are also usually large, making it easier to resize to more appropriate sizes. Magazine scans are generally not the most HQ images, even though they are large. For this tut, I recommend finding a large, HQ pic that you can resize, just to play around with the first time. After you get the hang of using different color layers and curves and such, then you should move onto different images of varying quality and experiment more.
Step o1
Here’s my base, a pretty HQ pic of Choi Minho. I’ve cropped and resized it already, here is the original image. As you can see, I lost no quality resizing the image smaller. However, if your image is small to begin with, you cannot make the image larger, sharpen, and assume the quality will still be maintained. This is because sizing an image stretches the pixels, whereas shrinking an image compresses them. Oftentimes, quality of an image can even be better when you shrink an image that’s been stretched.
Normally people will ready their base now, sharpening, lightening, etc. For this technique though, I tend to fiddle with my base after I’ve added the different color layers, because then I can play with it until I’m satisfied with the contrast and lightness.
So after you’ve gotten your base, duplicate it [ctrl + j, or layer-duplicate layer] This is so that if you decide your image isn’t how you want it to be, you still have the original base to go back to.
Step o2
Make a new layer [ctrl+shift+n or layer-new-layer]. With the paint bucket tool, fill in the layer with #4A2D18 and set the layer to exclusion, opacity 100%. This isn’t a tut for exclusion layers and really this is the only one used in the entire tut, but I’ll try to explain a little bit about them.
Exclusion layers basically isolate different colors of the image. Most graphic artists will use exclusion layers to soften the image. Depending on what color you use and how dark it is, different effects can be achieved.
The darkness of the color will determine just how great an effect it will have on the image. The lighter the shade of the color, the more the image will be affected by it. In addition, the color itself that you choose will also affect what the image will look like. A dark brown color will soften the image into a brownish shade, a navy blue will add a blue-ish tinge to it, a burgundy or dark red color will give it a burn look.
For now, use the brown that I’ve used. I will explain in a later step how to change it very easily if you find you don’t like how it affects your image.
What you should get with the #4A2D18 color:
What you can get playing with different shades of the brown:
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What you can get playing with different colors:
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Step o3
After the exclusion layer, you may notice that while the image is now much softer, it’s also a bit washed out. There are a number of ways to fix this. You can duplicate your base again and set it on top of the exclusion layer and set it to softlight (play around with opacity). What I’ll do, however, is add another color layer, one that will darken, without saturating, the image.
Add a new layer [ctrl+shift+n or layer-new-layer] and fill it using the paint bucket tool with #DBBEBE. Set it to color burn. Now, the image looks really saturated and dark, so I reduced the opacity of the color burn layer down to 54%. Much nicer.
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Step o4
Now, for 3 more color layers, two of which are the same colors and one that will balance the other two.
Add a new layer [ctrl+shift+n or layer-new-layer] and fill it using the paint bucket tool with #FFE2B9. Set it to softlight, 100%.
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Okay, now don’t panic because it looks very washed out and very orange. We will fix this with the next two color layers. Duplicate the #FFE2B9 color layer and set it instead to color burn. Yes, it’s even more orange now.
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Reduce the opacity down to 33%.
Step o5
Now onto our final color layer. Add a new layer [ctrl+shift+n or layer-new-layer] and fill it using the paint bucket tool with # 9EA6FF. Set the layer to multiply, 100%. You’ll notice that the orange from the color burn and softlight layers disappears. The semi-dark blue balances them out nicely.
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That’s it for the color layers, but the image itself isn’t done yet. From here there are a number of things you can do to make it look nicer. I’ll explain just one of the techniques I’ll move onto at this step.
Step o6
Go back to your duplicated base layer (it should be the second layer you have). We’re going to use curves in this steps, but don’t worry, it’s very basic. I use curves here to add contrast to the image and to lighten it. If curves frighten you, you can always set your duplicated layer to softlight or overlay (depending on whichever looks better) and achieve the same effect. Just know though that curves will allow you more flexibility when playing with contrast and lightness.
Now, go to the curves window [ctrl+m or image-adjustments-curves…]. This step is really subjective, because it all depends on your image and how much contrast you want to add to your image. I tend not to add too much because personally I prefer a soft look.
Play around with the input and output until you’re happy with what you’ve got (you can see my settings below). It shouldn't be too bright or too dark.
Step o7
The image is starting to look pretty good now, right? Depending on how sharp or clear your image is, you can stop at step 6. My final step is almost always to sharpen the image. [Filter-sharpen-sharpen] You can also use the sharpen tool to sharpen certain parts of the image.
After you’ve sharpened it, you’re done!
OPTIONAL
Let’s say you don’t like the brown look. It’s really easy to fiddle with different exclusion colors, without even having to keep filling the layer in using the pain bucket.
Find your exclusion layer and select it. Go to the Hue/saturation window [ctrl+u or image-adjustments-hue/saturation]. Under hue, scroll around with different hues too see what each color looks like on your image.
Hue changes the color of the filled layer. Saturation will change the how the darkest colors of the image are affected. Lightness changes the brightness of the color itself. Play around with all three of them, you’ll find lots of different combinations will work for you image. Below are just some examples of what you can achieve and the settings used to achieve them.
Different hue
Different hue & saturation
Different hue, saturation, & lightness
Other examples
Same steps, except I desaturated (turned image black and white) the image first.
Click here to download the PSD