Tutorial 01: BW with a splash of color for Photoshop CS2
Here is the tutorial requested by yummycherries for a group of icons in my last set of Kelly Clarkson icons. I didn't save the psd but the steps are the same. Please play around with settings and opacities. I am not going to show a screenshot to show where all the commads are thatI used. I assume you understand your program. I will provide the icon after each step. Try and make it look like it. This is just a guide.
Go from this to
01. Crop your picture into you base.
02. Use the unsharp mask to sharpen the picture. Play around with settings for you picture. (Settings: Amount 59% Radius: 0.7 Threshold: 0)
03. Desaturate your base (Ctrl+Shift+U)
04. Use auto contrast. (Image>Adjustments>Auto Contrast)
05. Duplicate you base twice. Set the first duplicate on screen and the second on soft light.( Base screen softlight is the order) Play with the opacity of the screen layer if it is too bright. If it is dark add another and place with its opacity. In this case I used two screen layers. The second one had an opacity of 30.
06. Add a Gaussian Blur of 1 pixel to the soft light layer. It makes the icon look softer i think.
07. Using the rounded rectangle shape in a bright color ( I used #a800cc) Place a rounded rectange (hold shift for a perfect square) where you would like and set it to screen.
08. I thought the edges of the shape were rough so I Gaussian Blured the shape layer on 1 pixel. ( A window will pop up asking rasterize the shape. Click yes.)
09. Add text if you would like. For this icon I added "GRANGER" in Print Dashed at 24pt all caps in black on crisp and rotated it slightly.
Go from this to
01. Crop your picture into you base.
02. Use the unsharp mask to sharpen the picture. Play around with settings for you picture. (Settings: Amount 59% Radius: 0.7 Threshold: 0)
03. Desaturate your base (Ctrl+Shift+U)
04. Use auto contrast. (Image>Adjustments>Auto Contrast)
05. Duplicate you base twice. Set the first duplicate on screen and the second on soft light.( Base screen softlight is the order) Play with the opacity of the screen layer if it is too bright. If it is dark add another and place with its opacity. In this case I used two screen layers. The second one had an opacity of 30.
06. Add a Gaussian Blur of 1 pixel to the soft light layer. It makes the icon look softer i think.
07. Using the rounded rectangle shape in a bright color ( I used #a800cc) Place a rounded rectange (hold shift for a perfect square) where you would like and set it to screen.
08. I thought the edges of the shape were rough so I Gaussian Blured the shape layer on 1 pixel. ( A window will pop up asking rasterize the shape. Click yes.)
09. Add text if you would like. For this icon I added "GRANGER" in Print Dashed at 24pt all caps in black on crisp and rotated it slightly.