#editingask

go to layer > new adjustment layer > gradient map. i like to start with the black and white default (for me, it’s 3 presets in) and adjust my colors from there. 

from there, as you can see from the preview above, i change what would normally be the black portion of the black and white tutorial and made it the color that i want to replace all the shadows in the photo (the parts that would be gray or black in a black and white photo!). here’s what happens when i do that:

here’s what i got from that. pretty, but you can play around with it more now that you know what you’re working with! to make the white/highlight portions more muted, like how it was in the edit you referenced, i changed the white to a lighter version of the pink used for the shadows.

here’s the result:

then you can add more adjustment layers and textures from there! you can do this with any colors btw :)

ok so first i cut out the pic of taylor and put it on a solid background (just for the purposes of this tutorial, you don’t necessarily have to do this yourself but it will make things easier! here’s what my file looks like:

and here’s what my layers look like:

after this, to actually change the color of something, click Layer > New > Layer and use a paint brush exactly where you want the color to be (make sure the paint layer is above the cut out layer). this is where cutting your picture out comes in handy. if you right-click the paint layer, you should be able to find an option that says Create Clipping Mask. click that and it should only appear where your cut out picture is and cut out everything else. from there, you can change the blending mode of your paint layer to Color, Hue, or anything else that looks nice. here’s what my layers look like after that.

here’s what the pic looks like now:

mission accomplished! if you want to do something a little more than changing the color, you can also do this with adjustment layers! repeat the process, except do Layer > New > Adjustment Layer. for the purposes of this tutorial, i chose selective color to accomplish the same effect i did with the paint layer. mess around with whatever settings you’d like in the adjustment layer, and go back to your layer panel. right-click Create Clipping Mask again so it only appears over your cut-out picture.

from there, click the white box next to the adjustment layer and brush around the photo within the layer mask so the adjustment layer/effect only appears where you want it to. for my picture, i used a black brush within the layer mask to make sure the adjustment didn’t show up on taylor’s face or the fries, leaving only the box orange. here’s what my layers look like:

and here’s what my picture looks like:

ok so imma do my best here! i start by finding a pic i like, usually something nice n expressive that will still be visible really smol (this is the pic i chose). then i create a new doc in photoshop with pixel dimensions of 128x128. paste and resize your image there – personally, i like it when the top of the subject is at approximately the halfway point of the icon, but you can do whatever you want! then, crop it out the way you want. this is what i have so far.

i then typically decide a nice color that will go well with the pic for the background. this can always change, but i used pink bc my followers for some reason are obsessed with pink (i don’t blame them tbh).

next, i color the picture – usually this consists of a layer of brightness/contrast, a selective color layer, and sometimes using a yellow brush on soft light or another blending mode option on taylor’s hair for some extra color.

you can stop here (sometimes i add a black and white gradient fill to the background on soft light and play with the settings from there), but a lot of times i choose a nice, subtle black and white texture and use blending mode options like soft light or overlay from there.

^ before setting it to overlay

^ after setting to overlay (and tweaking the background color a little to my liking!)

from here, you could sharpen the icon and be done with it, but sometimes i like to merge layers > duplicate > use gaussian blur on the top duplicated layer and set it to soft light, then sharpen the bottom original set of merged layers. this can add a little bit of color intensity and unify the icon a bit.

and this is the final product:

i hope this helped!!

alrighty so i just grabbed a random picture from taylorpictures and opened it up in photoshop – i’d recommend resizing it if you’re planning on making it smaller first, because this will make cropping it easier in the long run! if you’re planning on upping the brightness or contrast, i’d also recommend doing that here so it helps photoshop better distinguish your subject from its background. 

ANYWHOMST i have my photo open and the first thing we’re gonna do is go to the quick selection tool in the toolbar, it looks like this:

after selecting it, look toward the top of photoshop and make sure it’s on the +/add setting, like this:

then you can go through and select the portions of your photo you want to crop like i did here. it doesn’t have to be perfect yet! we can always go in and touch things up! you’ll have a selection that looks something like this:

before masking it or anything, we can make some adjustments. i know i want to also mask out the grey spaces between her arms and her body. we can easily do that by going back to the toolbar we saw earlier and switch to the -/minus option and adjust the brush size, seen here:

if you mess up and erase too much of your selection, you can always go back to the +/add option and add it back in! once you’re satisfied with what you’ve selected (again, doesn’t have to be super perfect, you’re just saving yourself time in the long run if you’re more accurate now), before you mask it out or erase anything, go toward the top of the screen again and choose the “select and mask” option:

here you’ll see what your selection is gonna look like, and it might look blurry and nasty and just altogether weird. we can fix that! we can smooth it out with the “smooth” tool, and that might look too feathery and weird, so make sure you adjust the contrast, too. here’s what i used for this photo:

once your photo in the preview looks gucci (again, doesn’t have to be perfect!), press okay and then go to the bottom of the layers panel, make sure the layer you’re working on is selected, and press the mask tool:

the portions you left unselected should disappear and voila! you’ve cropped your photo. but it’s probably still looking a little rough because photoshop can’t read your mind, so let’s fix that! here’s what mine’s looking like so far:

the edges are a little rough, but no need to worry. we’ll just play around with the mask! go to the layer you’re working on and make sure the 4 boxy lines appear around your mask and not the image itself, like this:

then you can go ahead and select the paint brush tool and make sure the foreground color is black:

i just really quickly smoothed out the parts i wanted to look less rough. i knew i’d be adding a dark background so i wasn’t too concerned with accuracy here, but if you are, go for it! you can also switch the foreground color to white instead of black if you need to add any part of the mask/cropped image back. here’s what i wound up with:

click out of the layer mask, pop on a background or some textures, adjust the photo how you want, and there you go! i hope this helps!