Tutorial: Working with Whites
requested by morgentau
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Made using Photoshop CS4
I hesitate to offer a tutorial for this icon because I don't think it's strong compositionally and the texture use is clumsy. I made this icon to be a personal icon. I wanted a quiet yoga icon and couldn't resist my favorite actor playing a yoga instructor. I probably should have resisted because the shot of him in bed, performing what reminds me of a modified sun salutation, is awkwardly composed and that carried over into my icon. Also? I made the icon because I wanted to play with folds in fabric and with an icon of subtly different whites. I did that and accomplished what I set out to do but the icon itself is flawed.
This is an unusual icon for me in that I knew what I wanted to do when I started it. My usual practice is more organic than goal-oriented but here I had an idea in mind. I wanted an icon with a sense of peace, an absence of color that would emphasize the stretched position, and a clean composition to imply solitude. I wanted to convey the sense of quiet that yoga gives me.
So, this is an exercise in differentiating shades of white and working with contrast to keep detail. For me, the way to do this is a series of small changes.
My layers palette
1
Crop the image.
The cap is not peaceful; there's another person looming in the foreground and the scene is cluttered. The cropping decision was simple: crop out the other person, keep the bed, and add a little more space at the top. That will increase the negative space, which I equate with a sense of peace.
click to see cap full-sized
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2
Extend the background.
Cropping out the person leaves blank space above the top edge of the cap that has to be filled with background like that in the cap. This is easy with this cap as it's mostly a solid colored wall and the pattern on the left side of the cap is vertical stripes. It's a prime candidate for using a large smoothing tool (19 px) set to 100% strength and dragging upward. If there isn't enough of the background to grab and drag with the large brush, then switch to a smaller brush size. I normally start with a 19 px brush and then switch to a 5 px brush to handle smaller details but it's a matter of experimenting to find the right brush size for your image.
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3
Remove medical equipment.
There's nothing relaxing about hospitals so I want to get rid of that medical equipment on the left. This is exactly the same as extending the background, only now I am using a small brush and dragging those lines down, over the medical equipment. It take patience and a steady hand to get it just right. And a lot of Undo.
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4
Brighten.
Background's done but I can't see much so time to brighten. As usual, I add a curves layer, grab the middle of the line and tug up. If you look at the curve, you can see that it isn't a symmetrical curve; it arcs towards the top line.
I arrived at the curve by first pulling out the middle of the line and then sliding the point further towards the lower left-hand corner and pulling ever so slightly back towards the center line. This is ENTIRELY trial and error. Just keep sliding the point, watching the image, until you find the level of brightening that you want. If it goes horribly wrong, delete the point and start over.
Curves Adjustment Layer, I/O = 83/159, Normal 100%
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5
Cool the coloring.
The cap is very warm; the whites are yellow. The warmth implies movement to me and is not what I'm hoping to convey. I want a cool-toned icon to evoke calm.
To take away yellow, add blue. There are many ways to do this. You can do it with selective color if you want to affect just the whites. You can use curves to affect the entire image or color balance to affect just a particular luminance range -- but those tools tend to change how bright an image is and will require additional tweaking to fix.
I'm not looking to change the luminance at this point, though, so I chose an easier method: photo filter adjustment layer. This will affect all the colors but it seems to me that the lighter a color it is, the more dramatically it's affected. I can't find documentation for this, alas. I tried all the cool toned filters and settled on Cooling Filter (80) as providing the cool-leaning whites that I wanted. The default values worked for me so nothing to change there.
Photo Filter Adjustment Layer, Normal 100%
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6
Cool the image more.
I like what the cooling filter did but looking at the sheets and his shirt, I think it's still a little too warm; I want it slightly cooler. I want finer control than another filter layer so this time I opted for a color balance layer, even though it's going to mess with my brightness.
I worked with just the midtones, shfiting all 3 of the sliders towards cooler colors. That is, I shifted the balance away from red, away from magenta, and away from yellow. Like everything, it's trial and error to find exact numbers that work for your particular image. It's not just how much you change a particular slider but how it relates to the other changes you make.
Color Balance Adjustment Layer (-15, +11, +11), Normal 100%
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7
Cool the image more -- again.
The image is still too neutral for my purposes so I made it cooler. I could have gone back to the former layer and changed those settings. I find color balance to be tricky and I liked the balance I had achieved so instead I copied that layer. That effect was too strong so I lowered the opacity of the layer until I liked it, which turned out to 55%.
Color Balance Adjustment Layer (-15, +11, +11), Normal 55%
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8
Cool and brighten the whites.
I like the skin tones but I'm not happy with the whites. The color balance layers have changed the luminance values just a wee bit and thus started to muddle the details of his shirt and pillow and sheets. To cool and brighten without changing the skin tones or hair, I chose selective color. I played with just the whites, adding cyan and subtracting black.
Selective Color Adjustment Layer (W= +13, 0, 0, -37), Normal 100%
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9
Brighten to show details of fingers & face.
I'm happy with the whites but the details of his fingers and his face in the bed are lost because it's too dark. If I use a curves layer, the values are linked so I'd brighten everything: midtones, the highlights, and even the shadows. That's more change than I want. I want to control just the midtones so I added a levels layer. I left the two end points (shadows/highlights) alone and just moved the midpoint (gamma). I shifted it to the left, expanding the range defined as highlight to mid-point in luminance. This in effect brightens the image without messing up the shadows.
Levels Adjustment Layer (0, 1.30, 255), Normal 100%
-->
10
Replace background.
I've focused until now exclusively on the coloring and detail of the yoga instructor and his linens. That background? The orange wall? It looks terrible. I wasn't particularly in love with it to start with -- the vertical lines on the left are inexplicable and unbalanced -- but I was hoping to keep it. That's why I spent the effort in Steps 2 & 3 to clean it up. Ah well, it's good practice, yes? At this point, though, the murky gray-ish orange wall and its mystery stripes are not salvageable and really? It has more contrast and detail than I want. Cue background replacement.
Merge Visible (cntrl+alt+shift+e in Windows // command+alt+shift+e on Mac), place a texture under the new layer, add mask, and mask out the background. I tried a lot of different backgrounds but I was looking for something that was gray or white-ish, hopefully with a directional side light. The cap lighting is almost a raking light from the side so I don't want something center-lit. If I find a texture that works color-wise but that lacks directional lighting, I can add it so color is key. Or, in this case, lack of color.
I chose this texture:
by lemonpunch
-->
11
Blend the image into the background.
The awkward angle of the bed edge looks terrible. If you look back at the cap, there's a comforter bit extending beyond the edge of the bed but cropped/shrunk/altered, it looks like a chunk of the bed is missing. I decided the best way to proceed was to blend it and the pillows into the background and let them fade away. I used a fuzzy brush made by unmasked_icons set to very low opacity and erased at the sharp edges until it seemed to melt into the background.
-->
12
Restore image.
I dither endlessly. I like the way the comforter edge blends into the background but was not so happy about the pillows. They're looking weirdly transparent. If I restore just the pillows, though, it'll look odd for part of the bed to fade away rather than the outer edges. I played with this for a LONG time, masking, unmasking, remasking, and so on. In the end, in a fit of frustration, I copied the merged layer from step 11 and decided it was the best I was going to do. This doubles the opacity of all partially masked areas.
-->
13
Brighten whites, differentiate from skin & hair.
A final brightening to bring out the whites but I want to emphasize his skin and hair against the monotone of the icon. I'm doing that by lightening the whites but also cooling them one final time while warming his skin. For that, I want a selective color layer. I changed just the whites (add cyan & lighten) and the reds (warm with red and yellow).
Selective Color Adjustment Layer (R=-22, 0, +17, 0; W=+19, 0, 0, -65)
-->
So, that's where I left it. I was NOT happy with the icon. Partly, it couldn't be helped because the cap itself is an awkward composition. I wouldn't normally have chosen to icon it except that I really wanted to play with both the moment and the whites. I tried a lot of different things to help balance the composition better but never came across anything that I liked. If I were working on it now, I'd take a couple of additional steps. I'd blur the left side of the texture to soften the lighting. At the time, I was thinking of raking light but looking at it now, I think it's too sharp. I'd also try to better balance the icon by using some tiny text in the upper-ish left hand corner. Or I'd re-crop the image, leaving more negative space so that I'd have more room to work with for balancing.
My layers palette
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!
-->
Made using Photoshop CS4
I hesitate to offer a tutorial for this icon because I don't think it's strong compositionally and the texture use is clumsy. I made this icon to be a personal icon. I wanted a quiet yoga icon and couldn't resist my favorite actor playing a yoga instructor. I probably should have resisted because the shot of him in bed, performing what reminds me of a modified sun salutation, is awkwardly composed and that carried over into my icon. Also? I made the icon because I wanted to play with folds in fabric and with an icon of subtly different whites. I did that and accomplished what I set out to do but the icon itself is flawed.
This is an unusual icon for me in that I knew what I wanted to do when I started it. My usual practice is more organic than goal-oriented but here I had an idea in mind. I wanted an icon with a sense of peace, an absence of color that would emphasize the stretched position, and a clean composition to imply solitude. I wanted to convey the sense of quiet that yoga gives me.
So, this is an exercise in differentiating shades of white and working with contrast to keep detail. For me, the way to do this is a series of small changes.
My layers palette
1
Crop the image.
The cap is not peaceful; there's another person looming in the foreground and the scene is cluttered. The cropping decision was simple: crop out the other person, keep the bed, and add a little more space at the top. That will increase the negative space, which I equate with a sense of peace.
click to see cap full-sized
-->
2
Extend the background.
Cropping out the person leaves blank space above the top edge of the cap that has to be filled with background like that in the cap. This is easy with this cap as it's mostly a solid colored wall and the pattern on the left side of the cap is vertical stripes. It's a prime candidate for using a large smoothing tool (19 px) set to 100% strength and dragging upward. If there isn't enough of the background to grab and drag with the large brush, then switch to a smaller brush size. I normally start with a 19 px brush and then switch to a 5 px brush to handle smaller details but it's a matter of experimenting to find the right brush size for your image.
-->
3
Remove medical equipment.
There's nothing relaxing about hospitals so I want to get rid of that medical equipment on the left. This is exactly the same as extending the background, only now I am using a small brush and dragging those lines down, over the medical equipment. It take patience and a steady hand to get it just right. And a lot of Undo.
-->
4
Brighten.
Background's done but I can't see much so time to brighten. As usual, I add a curves layer, grab the middle of the line and tug up. If you look at the curve, you can see that it isn't a symmetrical curve; it arcs towards the top line.
I arrived at the curve by first pulling out the middle of the line and then sliding the point further towards the lower left-hand corner and pulling ever so slightly back towards the center line. This is ENTIRELY trial and error. Just keep sliding the point, watching the image, until you find the level of brightening that you want. If it goes horribly wrong, delete the point and start over.
Curves Adjustment Layer, I/O = 83/159, Normal 100%
-->
5
Cool the coloring.
The cap is very warm; the whites are yellow. The warmth implies movement to me and is not what I'm hoping to convey. I want a cool-toned icon to evoke calm.
To take away yellow, add blue. There are many ways to do this. You can do it with selective color if you want to affect just the whites. You can use curves to affect the entire image or color balance to affect just a particular luminance range -- but those tools tend to change how bright an image is and will require additional tweaking to fix.
I'm not looking to change the luminance at this point, though, so I chose an easier method: photo filter adjustment layer. This will affect all the colors but it seems to me that the lighter a color it is, the more dramatically it's affected. I can't find documentation for this, alas. I tried all the cool toned filters and settled on Cooling Filter (80) as providing the cool-leaning whites that I wanted. The default values worked for me so nothing to change there.
Photo Filter Adjustment Layer, Normal 100%
-->
6
Cool the image more.
I like what the cooling filter did but looking at the sheets and his shirt, I think it's still a little too warm; I want it slightly cooler. I want finer control than another filter layer so this time I opted for a color balance layer, even though it's going to mess with my brightness.
I worked with just the midtones, shfiting all 3 of the sliders towards cooler colors. That is, I shifted the balance away from red, away from magenta, and away from yellow. Like everything, it's trial and error to find exact numbers that work for your particular image. It's not just how much you change a particular slider but how it relates to the other changes you make.
Color Balance Adjustment Layer (-15, +11, +11), Normal 100%
-->
7
Cool the image more -- again.
The image is still too neutral for my purposes so I made it cooler. I could have gone back to the former layer and changed those settings. I find color balance to be tricky and I liked the balance I had achieved so instead I copied that layer. That effect was too strong so I lowered the opacity of the layer until I liked it, which turned out to 55%.
Color Balance Adjustment Layer (-15, +11, +11), Normal 55%
-->
8
Cool and brighten the whites.
I like the skin tones but I'm not happy with the whites. The color balance layers have changed the luminance values just a wee bit and thus started to muddle the details of his shirt and pillow and sheets. To cool and brighten without changing the skin tones or hair, I chose selective color. I played with just the whites, adding cyan and subtracting black.
Selective Color Adjustment Layer (W= +13, 0, 0, -37), Normal 100%
-->
9
Brighten to show details of fingers & face.
I'm happy with the whites but the details of his fingers and his face in the bed are lost because it's too dark. If I use a curves layer, the values are linked so I'd brighten everything: midtones, the highlights, and even the shadows. That's more change than I want. I want to control just the midtones so I added a levels layer. I left the two end points (shadows/highlights) alone and just moved the midpoint (gamma). I shifted it to the left, expanding the range defined as highlight to mid-point in luminance. This in effect brightens the image without messing up the shadows.
Levels Adjustment Layer (0, 1.30, 255), Normal 100%
-->
10
Replace background.
I've focused until now exclusively on the coloring and detail of the yoga instructor and his linens. That background? The orange wall? It looks terrible. I wasn't particularly in love with it to start with -- the vertical lines on the left are inexplicable and unbalanced -- but I was hoping to keep it. That's why I spent the effort in Steps 2 & 3 to clean it up. Ah well, it's good practice, yes? At this point, though, the murky gray-ish orange wall and its mystery stripes are not salvageable and really? It has more contrast and detail than I want. Cue background replacement.
Merge Visible (cntrl+alt+shift+e in Windows // command+alt+shift+e on Mac), place a texture under the new layer, add mask, and mask out the background. I tried a lot of different backgrounds but I was looking for something that was gray or white-ish, hopefully with a directional side light. The cap lighting is almost a raking light from the side so I don't want something center-lit. If I find a texture that works color-wise but that lacks directional lighting, I can add it so color is key. Or, in this case, lack of color.
I chose this texture:
by lemonpunch
-->
11
Blend the image into the background.
The awkward angle of the bed edge looks terrible. If you look back at the cap, there's a comforter bit extending beyond the edge of the bed but cropped/shrunk/altered, it looks like a chunk of the bed is missing. I decided the best way to proceed was to blend it and the pillows into the background and let them fade away. I used a fuzzy brush made by unmasked_icons set to very low opacity and erased at the sharp edges until it seemed to melt into the background.
-->
12
Restore image.
I dither endlessly. I like the way the comforter edge blends into the background but was not so happy about the pillows. They're looking weirdly transparent. If I restore just the pillows, though, it'll look odd for part of the bed to fade away rather than the outer edges. I played with this for a LONG time, masking, unmasking, remasking, and so on. In the end, in a fit of frustration, I copied the merged layer from step 11 and decided it was the best I was going to do. This doubles the opacity of all partially masked areas.
-->
13
Brighten whites, differentiate from skin & hair.
A final brightening to bring out the whites but I want to emphasize his skin and hair against the monotone of the icon. I'm doing that by lightening the whites but also cooling them one final time while warming his skin. For that, I want a selective color layer. I changed just the whites (add cyan & lighten) and the reds (warm with red and yellow).
Selective Color Adjustment Layer (R=-22, 0, +17, 0; W=+19, 0, 0, -65)
-->
So, that's where I left it. I was NOT happy with the icon. Partly, it couldn't be helped because the cap itself is an awkward composition. I wouldn't normally have chosen to icon it except that I really wanted to play with both the moment and the whites. I tried a lot of different things to help balance the composition better but never came across anything that I liked. If I were working on it now, I'd take a couple of additional steps. I'd blur the left side of the texture to soften the lighting. At the time, I was thinking of raking light but looking at it now, I think it's too sharp. I'd also try to better balance the icon by using some tiny text in the upper-ish left hand corner. Or I'd re-crop the image, leaving more negative space so that I'd have more room to work with for balancing.
My layers palette
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!