Tutorial #1
From this:
To this:
[+] Made in PSPXI, but should be translatable
[+] Intermediate difficulty
[+] Uses color balance
01. Start with your base. I've decided to go with the gorgeous Mr. Leto. <3
02. Paste this gradient onto a new layer and set it at Screen, 100%. Rotate or flip if need be.
03. Duplicate your base layer and bring to the top. Go to Adjust >> Hue and Saturation >> Hue/Saturation/Lightness and set the Saturation at -100 so you have a black and white layer (if you have a different way of changing images to black and white, go ahead). Set it at Soft Light, 100%.
04. Repeat Step 03, except set the layer at Hard Light, 30%.
05. Paste this light texture by me onto a new layer and set it at Screen, 100%. Move and/or erase parts over the face if need be (for my icon, I mirrored the light texture and erased the part over the lips).
06. Repeat Step 05 (however, I did not erase anything this time). Go to Adjust >> Blur >> Gaussian Blur and set the radius at 5.00.
07. Create a new layer. Take your default rounded brush and make a small dot just big enough to cover the iris. Set it at Overlay, 100%. The color you use depends on what color you want the eye to be (I went with #00a7c0).
NOTE: This works best on lighter eyes with high contrast. If the eyes are darker, you may need to fiddle with the brightness/contrast.
08. Go to Edit >> Copy Merged, then paste as a new layer. Sharpen it. If need be, duplicate your current layer and sharpen again. Erase areas that are too sharp (usually I erase everything but the eyes or other important parts of the face so they stand out).
09. Create a new layer. Fill it with #0e073b and set it to Exclusion, 100%.
10. Go to Layers >> New Adjustment Layer >> Color Balance and input the following levels (make sure preserve luminance is checked):
Shadows: -73, 5, 9
Midtones: -29, 0, 16
Highlights: -17, 0, 17
11. Paste the light texture from Step 05 onto a new layer, moving it as you see fit (I selected the tiny light spot and moved it closer to the righthand corner). Set the layer to Screen, 100%.
12. To create the text, make a new layer. I used the font Miss, which can be found at http://fontfreak.com, and typed a few lines of small text and squished them together. Rotate/move around the text as you like.
Hope you enjoyed my first tutorial! Be sure to play around with the settings and textures. Following the steps exactly will not work for every image, especially if your base has low contrast/saturation. Feel free to comment and post your own results!