Warm Red and Blue Icon Coloring

Photoshop Tutorials

Tutorial

Click on thumbnailed images to enlarge

How to turn this: to this:

1. We'll start off by opening an image. I used one of the amazing Keira Knightley, courtesy of here. Crop it to your liking. I think this coloring works best with bright to semi-bright celebrity photoshoot photos. To avoid confusion, try using the same image that I'm using.

2. Duplicate your base. Now set the first copy ("Layer 1 copy" or "Background copy") to Screen at 62% opacity. If your picture is already bright, you can lower the opacity. Make sure it's in between 20% to 70%. This basically brightens up your picture, you'll also see why in the next step.
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3. Duplicate your base one more time. Drag it all the way to the top and set it to Soft Light at 100%. This adds some contrast to your image, and the screen we did in the last layer helps tone it out.
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4.Go to Layers >> Adjustment Layers >> Curves. The Curves window will pop up.To make a point, press anywhere in the grid, and put the numbers in the little white boxes that appear in the bottom of the grid. Follow my settings:

Channel: RGB


Channel: Red


Channel: Green


Channel: Blue


This adds some warm red color to it. It will look like this now:



5. Go to Layers >> Adjustment Layers >> Color Balance. The Color Balance window will pop up. Follow my setting:
Midtones: -30 +13 +17
Shadows: +27 +16 -15
Highlights: -8 -13 -2

This makes the red a bit more subtle by adding a touch of yellow. It will look like this now:


6. Go to Layers >> Adjustment Layers >> Channel Mixer. The Channel Mixer window will pop up. Follow my settings:
Output Channel: Red
Red: +110
Green: -24
Blue: -4

Output Channel: Green
Red: +14
Green: +88
Blue: -6

Output Channel: Blue
Red: +32
Green: -2
Blue: +68

This gives the image more blue. It should now look like this:


7. Go to Layer >> New Fill Layer >> Solid Color. Choose #282c6f and set to Exclusion at 10%. This makes it a tad darker.
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8. Go to Layer >> New Fill Layer >> Solid Color. Choose #fe619c and set to Soft Light at 25%. This adds a pink touch to the icon.


Your Final Icon:


Other Results using different pictures:


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Tutorial Comments

Showing latest 10 of 10 comments

this ones my favorite. i use this tutorial all the time ;)

By Peachezx on Jan 5, 2010 12:24 am

I could never understand the whole "Curv Point" thing, but now... I DO! Thank you!! :)

By JayJayBabyy on Oct 14, 2009 12:35 am

beautiful!! I've always wanted to make these kinds of icons ^.^

By kimt08 on Jul 4, 2009 3:25 pm

love itt

By diana170 on Jul 3, 2009 9:07 pm

Added to my favorites :D

By WizardMadds on Jun 28, 2009 4:59 pm

lovely.

By futura on Jun 28, 2009 4:07 am

love it! will definitely try.

By bee24 on Jun 23, 2009 4:35 pm

sweet

By forgetit on Jun 12, 2009 2:48 pm

I love this colouring, it's gorgeous.

By aliiicimo on Jun 5, 2009 12:47 pm

i love the coloring.
its really pretty. =]

By daisyy-yupp on Jun 4, 2009 12:38 pm

Tutorial Details

Author broken-doll View profile
Submitted on Jun 4, 2009
Page views 9,801
Favorites 50
Comments 10
Reviewer manny-the-dino View profile
Approved on Jun 4, 2009