fifty six
to
Photoshop CS4
Easy
8 steps
1. Open your base, crop to 100 x 100 pixels.
2. Duplicate your base twice. Set the first Layer to Soft Light 100% Opacity, and the second to Luminosity 100% Opacity.
I consider this one step, as what i'm trying to achieve only works when you use the two together.
The Soft Light layer darkens park of the image while still bringing out some of the color, mostly the whites and the blacks, this will however differ for differnt images. I use Soft Light layers alot, however I normally use a lower Opacity. In this image i wanted to bring out the pink in Kristens lips and the color of her skin. This is why i added a Luminosity Layer. This brightens up the colors added by the Softlight layer.
3. Create a Fill Layer. Fill with #fcd4c2 and set to Multiply 80% Opacity.
This adds a orange overtone to the whole image. This helps add alot more color to the skin and the lips. This will be the layer you will have to play around with the most, as it can make some images look really nasty.
4. Create another FIll Layer, fill with #f9919f and set to Soft Light 100% Opacity.
Again, you may want to lower the opacity of this layer as it can make some images alittle to pink. As just mentioned this layer adds loads of pink to the image. Because it's a Softlight layer it also brightens up the image, as the last layer can darken the image a little.
5. Create another Fill Layer and flood with #f54b77, set this to Pin Light 30% Opacity.
To add ever more pink to the image image use this layer. You can take this layer out if needed, but wait till the end as this layer is helping the build up to the next layer.
6. Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Color Balance
SHADOWS -10 8 5
MIDTONES -16 -6 -33
HIGHLIGHTS -1 -2 5
This is why we added the last to layers, without them, this layer doesn't work! This layer dulls down some of the pink, making it more bearable aswell as adding more orange to the image. This layer also adds more depth to the shadows, whereas the last layers give the image a matt look, this layer adds something back.
7. SHIFT CTRL ALT E then Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen
I just always tend to sharpen images, and i think you really need to sharpen with the coloring as it can blur the image alittle and take out some of the detail.
8. Set a new Layer to Soft Light and take a 45 px Soft brush in #eddfba and stamp in the top center of the image, Duplicate this Layer.
I used this to brighten up a particular area of the image, you can move this around depending on your image and make it larger.
And your done. This coloring will not work on every image, try to use this tutorial as a base to work from. Play around with the setting to suit your image. I love to see what you come up with, so please post!
other examples( none of these use the exact coloring as above)
