Help on making Avatars

I usually start with a 105x150 box. I copy/past a massive image (usually super High-Res) onto a Photoshop layer. From there I play with it. I reasize the image not to fit the box but until I've captured all that I think needs to be captured and have made an interesting composition based off of a larger image. I want to catch the right parts of the image and have them be just the right size. I'm actually very meticulous about it. I don't want my avatars to be forgettable. (Hopefully, they are not.)

Nine times out of ten I mess with the brightness/contrast, or color balance if the colors are too dull. For example, my current avatar is significantly redder than its source.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Inhert

hmm there something far more easy then what you do Legato.

1. open your image (original size of the picture)
2. click on the rectangular marquee tool
3. change style to: Fixed Aspect Ration
4. put 105x150 in the aspect ration
5. select the part of the picture that you want in the avatar (it will do a rectangle of the ration 105x150)
6. copy/paste the selection into a new file
7. resize the file to 105x150 and there you have your new avatar

to save the ava for something less then 20kb with almost no quality lost, just follow what I said in this thread earlier^^

That isn't the same for me. Seeing the entire image will confuse my opinion of the final product. If I work within the confined space of a 105x105 pixel box, I am always aware of what the avatar would look like exactly.

How ya doing, buddy?