{wallpaper tutorial #2}
This tutorial is a guide to making this wallpaper.The Beginning
I make a new file (1024x768) and fill the canvas with black. I then take this cap of Peyton, Jake and Jenny of One Tree Hill (capped by me). I make it a bit smaller and cut out a bit of the bottom.Then I clean the cap- duplicate the layer, add median at 5 (filter>noise median), fade this layer to 50%, mask the parts I want to keep very defined and merge. Then go to filter>other>highpass, set it to 1, then go to fade>high pass and set this to overlay. To make it a bit for smooth, I go to filter>blur>gaussian blur with a setting of 2, then fade this to 50%.
I brighten up my image a bit- duplicate the layer a couple of times (3 to be exact- but it depends on your image) and set the layers to screen at 100%. Also, I have one layer set at soft light 50% on top. Marge all these layers (just the screencap- not background). This last step really depends on your image, you may not need to brighten it. I then duplicate this layer, desaturate it and set it to soft light. Merge the two layers.
And to finish- I add a bar of colour (#b36650) right under the image to seperate the cap from the black. I also add a 2px #3d2946 border to this bar.
My image now looks like this.
Colour
Note: This colour goes with this image, you'll have to play around with a colouring to achieve a good result.I add a selective colour layer (layer>new adjustment layer>selective colour): Reds= cyan: +40, Magenta: -10, Yellow: -12, Black: -14 Yellows= cyan: -18, Magenta: -15, Yellow: -8 Cyan= Cyan: +100, Magenta: +69, Yellow: +68 Blues= Magenta: -58 Magentas= Cyan: -36, Magenta: -44 Whites= Black: +37
On top of that I add a Brigtness/Contrast layer (layer>new adjustment layer>selective colour) with +10 for brightness and +15 for contrast.
On top of that I add a new layer and fill it with #0f082e (a dark blue) and set this to exclusion. I add one more layer on top of this of #c0e9e7 (a light blue) and set it to color burn 40%.
Now I add some gradient maps. First I add this gradient and set it to soft light 60%, On top of that I add this gradient and set it to soft light 60%, on top of that I add this gradient and set it to soft light 60% and lastly, I add this gradient and set it to soft light 100%.
My image now looks like this.
Swirly Goodness
Here's the part where I work the radial blur in. Duplicate your layer of the screencap then go to filter>blur>radial blur with the settings at: amount=15, blur method= spin and quality=good. I then add a mask to this blurred layer and mask peyton, jake and jenny...I still keep them blurred around the edges though. To make the swirled layer a bit sharp, I apply paint daubs (filter>artistic>paint daubs) with a setting of 2 for both brush size and sharpness. I duplicate this blurred layer once.My image now looks like this.
Textures
I add the textures above my screencap layers and under all my colour layers.First I add this texture from Wendy and set it to soft light 100%. I mask this just a bit where there is too much texture on the people's faces, but I still keep a bit of texture. I add another texture from Wendy, set it to soft light 100% and mask it completely over Jake, Jenny and Peyton. Then I add these two textures (1 and 2) on top, both set at screen 100%. I then duplicate the original screencap layer, bring it to the very top of all the layers and set it to normal 15%.
My image now looks like this.
Finishing Touches
Now to add some filters. Select the top layer in the layer panel, press ctrl+a (select all), press shift+ctrl+c (edit>copy merged) and then paste the layer (ctrl+v). This layer must be on top of everything. First, make sure your foreground colour is black and background colour is white. Then, I go to filter>sketch>notepaper. My settings are: image balance=43, graininess=8 and relief=4. I set this to soft light and mask peyton, jake and jenny. Once again, I select all and paste the merged layer on top. Then I use a nice effect I learned from Wendy, I go to filter>sketch>photocopy with detail at 3 and darkness at 16. Set this layer to darken 25%.I then add some simple text, using georgia as a font. Behind this, I add two tiny heart brushes. I finish off the piece with a dark blue border.
And here's the end product, once again:
