Program: Photoshop CS2
Difficulty: Easy
Steps: 10
1 Crop your base to 100x100 pixels, save sharpening until the end!
2 Duplicate it twice. Set the first new layer to Soft Light @ 100% and the second to Luminosity @ 100%.
3 Make a new Selective Color layer by going to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Selective Color
Reds: -71, +28, +64, -34
Yellows: -19, -46, -100, +100
Whites: -22, -33, -100, -31
Neutrals: +16, -10, -8, +10
Blacks: +7, +12, +4, -6
4 Make a new black, white Gradient Map by going to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Gradient Map and choose the 3rd gradient. Set this layer to Soft Light @ 30%.
5 Make a new Photo Filter layer by going to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Photo Filter. Choose the Warming Filter (85), set the density to 25% (default setting).
6 Make another Photo Filter layer. This time choose Cooling Filter (82), and set the density to 8%.
7 Now that we have some life and color in the picture, we need to sort of add some lightness or darkness into the picture. To do this, we'll make a new Levels layer by going to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Levels.
Input: 18, 1.15, 255
Output: 15, 245
8 Alright, we're almost done! Make a new Channel Mixer layer by going to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Channel Mixer.
Output Channel: Blue
-2, 0, +94, +2
9 Let's brighten up the picture a little bit by using a Brightness/Contrast layer. Go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Brightness/Co
Brightness: +5
Contrast: +6
10 Make a new Color Balance layer by going to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Color Balance.
Midtones: -18, +3, -12
From here on out, you can either go on with the following steps, but they're optional.
11 I went over Kristen's lips with the color #f45553 using a 3px round brush (low hardness percentage). To do this, I zoomed in really far (Ctrl, then +) until it's big enough where you can go over it well. Set this layer to Soft Light @ 42%.
12 Now Merge All layers or Flatten Image by going to Layer>Flatten Image (at the very bottom). Then go to Filter>Sharpen. You can also fade the Sharpness to fit your particular image by going to Edit>Fade Sharpen and adjust as needed. I faded mine to 25%.
Voila! You're done! I love seeing everyone's results, and I love getting feedback in general, so be sure to comment! :)
