Screw that...
1) Download the Adobe Photoshop demo from
www.adobe.com.
2) Download a crack program that converts the demo to a full copy.
3) Download a bunch of anti-virus software to uninstall all the virii, trojan horses, back doors and root kits that come with looking for and installing software cracks.
4) Check out some of the crazy monkey porn that pops up while crack hunting as well.
5) Attempt to install the Photoshop crack.
6) Repeat steps 2-5 until you finally get a working crack.
7) Open the image in Photoshop.
Copy the background layer to its own new layer (Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V).
9) Discard the background layer (drag it to the layer's trashcan).
10) Select Image->Canvas Size from the menu.
11) Set the height to 800 pixels to make the image square and on a transparent background.
12) Select Image->Adjustments->Levels from the menu.
13) Set the input levels to 0, .60, 200 to enhance contrast, click Ok.
14) Select Image->Image Size from the menu.
15) Set the width and height to 80 pixels, use 'Bicubic Sharper' resampling, click Ok.
16) Select File->Save for Web from the menu.
17) Select GIF, Lossy:0, Perceptual pallet, 256 colors, No dither, Check Transparency, no Matte, No Transparency Dither, Uncheck Interlaced, 0% web snap, then click Save.
1
Save as "NicksSTi_avatar.gif".
19) Exit Photoshop, no need to save the .jpg version changes.
20) Upload the new avatar!
Simple!