Image Modification Tutorial

[sinspire]

So I cave. Because you guys keep asking, here is an absurdly tl;dr tutorial. No coloring secrets though, sorry. ♥

Comments

[teaclovers]

This is helpful~ Memeing and trying it out =)

[ex_uniform983]

Not surprised great coloring goes well with Geass pics XDD

But I love this tut! Mem'ing it and will try out later! =D

[sinspire]

lol, Geass pics are always the easiest to color, the color pallet of the whole show is just a;hdiais. NO WONDER EVERYONE ICONS IT. ♥ ♥

Thanks, I hope it helps you somehow! =D

[nyaabo]

I always wondered how you did the highlights! I might try it in the future. Thanks for making this. :D

On a side note, I really like how this tutorial was written (without exact values and stuff).

[sinspire]

Yeeep, the highlights are always the fun point. I've almost come to depend on them too much though. XD

Well thank you! I tried to make it more like I was instructing people upon how I actually go about my process, instead of just listing a bunch of meaningless layers.

[gossymer]

Thank you so much for doing this! At first I was all ;_; about lack of any colorings prefs but then I realised that it was actually step 4 (highlights/shadows) which gives icons that extra punch :)

I adore Smart Sharpen - though personally I've dropped guassian blur for Reduce Noise (Filter>Noise>Reduce Noise) which allows for more controlled blurring and noise cleaning.

Never really used multiple selective coloring layers - must try it out! I tend to:

1. Clean up image: screen, softlight, overlay layers + reduce noise and smark sharpen and levels
2. Color balance, Hue Saturation, Selective Coloring
3. Solid color layers or gradients set to Exclusion or Difference

I cheat now by creating actions that do it all for me and then I just tweak the opacity of the adjustment layers et all XD

[sinspire]

You're welcome! And yeah, sorry again about the lack of coloring instructions, but I do consider the image adjustments to be the heart and soul of each icon~

Oh, I like the reduce noise too. Like I said, there are multiple ways to similar looks, so just do whichever you are most comfortable with. =D

[gossymer]

That's especially the case with anime so definitely understand ^_^ The effects you got via manual highlights/shadows effects was what stumped me with past icons though - they give added depth and realism which can't be achieved with usual levels et all. Suddenly, I'm no longer banging my head against a wall XD

There's only one thing that I stay clear of and that's curves - some peeps have it licked but it just gives me headaches >_>

Though selective coloring only became popular in the past two years come to think of it. I remember headdesking 'cause everyone seemed to stay clear of it >_>

[inquisitorial]

This is really informative! I'm going to try out the over-sharpened part and the soft light part when I get home

[sinspire]

Thanks, hopefully you get something useful out of it! ♥