PaintShop Pro
 
 

badbadpixie asked me to do a tutorial for a QAF icon using a dark cap and using Paint Shop Pro. Now I do NOT work in PS CS3 at all so this tutorial uses one of the ways that I have worked with the dark caps of QaF.
 

I am currently using Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 but much of this tutorial would apply to the older versions of that program too. It has pile of features (many I have barely skimmed) but it does work quite differently from PS CS3. Be kind this is my first attempt at a tutorial.
 
 

I went from this

to this

 
 

First Step:
First copy the picture and paste it as a new raster layer. Double click on the new layer in the layer’s palette and bring up the layer property screen. Change the blend mode to screen with opacity at 100%. This lightens the cap a bit but it still needs more. Merge the layers.
 


 
 

2nd Step:
Repeat the previous step exactly and with this picture keep the 100% opacity. For other pictures I would adjust this accordingly reducing the amount of screening or even foregoing this step if it is not needed. It looked like this when done
 

 
 

3rd Step:
The picture is very grainy so apply Adjust -One Step Noise removal. The cap looks like this.

 
 

4th Step:
Cap is still too dark so use Adjust -Colour –Fade correction 100% on it.

 
 

The cap now looks like this:

 
 

5th Step:
Next apply Adjust- Hue and Saturation –Hue Saturation and Lightness with Hue set at 6, saturation at -20 and lightness at 2

 
 

6th Step:
Colour needs to be toned down so apply Adjust, Smart Photo Fix and reduce the colour to -9.

 
 

7th Step:
Crop to a square
 
 

8th Step:
Choose a New Raster layer–set hue 100% and fill with #ffc0c0

 
 

9th Step:
Resize to 100px by 100px
 
 

10th Step:
Merge all layers
 
 

11th Step:
Choose Adjust, Sharpen twice
 
 

12th Step:
Text: Add text as a vector layer– click on text icon and bring up text box. Type “luminous” or whatever text you want. Highlight word and change size to 12, font zapfhumnst, colour #723c74 for both background and stroke properties, set stroke as .2 and anti alias as sharp. When text is where you want it then press ctrl & d to freeze text.

Last step
Adjust, Softness , Soft focus with softness set at 75%

And voila…

 
 

Comments are lovely, and so are questions. If you do end up using this I would love to see what you make out of it!
 
COMMENTS & QUESTIONS: HERE You can leave anonymous comments as long as you mentioned you are redirected from Reminiscent-Designs!