Tutorial #1 & #2
shizuka_blooms asked me how I made two icons of batch #12, so here there are my first two tutorials!

These were both made in Photoshop CS3 and they're not translatable, sorry D:

How to make this:


1. First, open your image and crop to your liking. I wanted a crop that focused on Nathan's expression - I could've done better, but I got the pretty lashes and the pretty lips, so it's okay.
I know there are icon makers who prefer coloring first and cropping later, but I like to choose the coloring to use knowing which details I want to bring out, and I can't do that coloring the whole picture.



2. Duplicate your base and set it to Soft Light - for screencaps, I'd suggest a duplicated layer set to screen or two, because caps are usually pretty dark. This was an Hi-res promo picture, so I even had to lower the opacity of the Soft Light layer, which is set to 68% in this icon.



3. I wanted a bright coloring to bring out the lips and lighten the beard. Don't ask me why, looking back, I would've gone easier on the reds/oranges.
With this icon I did something different from usual - I'm all for selective coloring and almost never use fill layers, but I saw a .psd that used a bright pink fill layer and I wanted to try that out.
(The .psd, by the way, is by pinklabel and this icon's coloring is very close to the one I downloaded there. So most of the credit goes to trutdelamode, which is an amazing icon maker and has the most gorgeous .psd's on her comm, so check it out.)
So, since the fill layer later is going to bring out all the oranges, we need a selective coloring layer (Layer->New Adjustment Layer->Selective Color) that dulls them a bit.

REDS:
Cyan +1
Magenta +50
Yellow +100
Black 0

GREENS:
Cyan 0
Magenta +100
Yellow 0
Black 0

CYANS:
Cyan +100
Magenta +33
Yellow -100
Black -5

MAGENTAS:
Cyan +100
Magenta +100
Yellow +100
Black 0

NEUTRALS:
Cyan +40
Magenta -15
Yellow +45
Black -32



4. It's time for the amazing fill layer! (Layer->New Fill Layer->Solid Color) The color is #fe268b, the layer is set to Overlay, with a loooow opacity. Something around 13%, it depends on how bright you like it!



5. Time for a Color Balance (Layer->Adjustment Layer->Color Balance) layer to enhance the contrasts a bit - the black is too dull.

SHADOWS:
Cyan-Red 0
Magenta-Green 0
Yellow-Blue +86

MIDTONES:
Cyan-Red +75
Magenta-Green -66
Yellow-Blue -66

HIGHLIGHTS:
Cyan-Red 0
Magenta-Green 0
Yellow-Blue -49



6. Now we brighten the reds a bit more, because I wanted to do so at the time. I usually step away from Hue/Saturation layers, but this one was in the original .psd and it worked, so I left it as it was.
So, Hue/Saturation (Layer->Adjustment Layer->Hue Saturation) it is.

MASTER:
Hue 0
Saturation +5
Lightness 0



7. Time for the last layer! It's selective coloring again. This one will bring the cyan out a bit and make the icon less green-ish.

REDS:
Cyan -10
Magenta +12
Yellow 0
Black +10

YELLOWS:
Cyan 0
Magenta 0
Yellow -5
Black 0

GREENS:
Cyan 0
Magenta 0
Yellow -100
Black 0

NEUTRALS:
Cyan 0
Magenta 0
Yellow 0
Black -6



And it's done! ♥

I'm not making the .psd available for download because, again, you can find one close enough at pinklabel.



How to make this:


1. I didn't keep the .psd of this icon, so I'll try to re-create it. Again, open your image and crop. Obviously the focus here is Milo's pretty, crooked smile. My goal was to make his lips bright red and yummy and make people think 'Guh, lips, mhh' when they see the icon.



2. Duplicate the base and set the layer to Screen, at 50% opacity, then like in the first tutorial, duplicate your base again and set it to Soft Light, but this time leave the opacity at 100%. I also sharpened (Filter->Sharpen->Sharpen) the soft light layer because the picture looked a bit blurred.



3. It's time for the selective coloring (Layer->Adjustment Layer->Selective Color) fun again! We're going to wash out most of the yellows, so the reds will be brighter in the end - you'll see with the last Selective Coloring layer. We're also going to make the general coloring lighter, and at the same time to enhance the contrast by making the blacks darker.

REDS:
Cyan -13
Magenta 0
Yellow +20
Black +16

YELLOWS:
Cyan 0
Magenta 0
Yellow -61
Black 0

NEUTRALS:
Cyan 0
Magenta 0
Yellow 0
Black -9

BLACKS:
Cyan 0
Magenta 0
Yellow 0
Black +5



4. Now duplicate the selective coloring layer. We're going to need it, because the last one is very dark and bright, so don't worry if it looks washed out and too light now.



5. It is now time for the last selective coloring layer that will bring out all the pretty reds. You might have to play around with these settings a bit, because with screencaps the result could be not nice at all - you can usually fix that with screen layers, though.

REDS:
Cyan -100
Magenta 0
Yellow +100
Black +40

YELLOWS:
Cyan 0
Magenta 0
Yellow -43
Black 0

NEUTRALS:
Cyan +23
Magenta 0
Yellow 0
Black +12

BLACKS:
Cyan +13
Magenta 0
Yellow 0
Black +5

And it's done!



This was the icon the tutorial was requested for ->
Pretty much the same.



I hope these were helpful!♥

P.S. heroes_rumble! Because rumbles are fun, and Heroes is love.