Photoshop Background Ideas

Designing a background for your work is an important step in creating a unified look to any project.  Your can use many techniques in Photoshop to achieve effects which would work in many projects. Get started with amazing effects by trying some of these tried and true techniques.

 

  1. Create a Plaid Design
    1. Open an image you would like to use in your project.  The image should have a wide variety of color.  Light or washed out images do not work.
    2. Duplicate the layer.
    3. Use Blur/motion blur. Make the angle 0 and the amount 999.  If you do not see your work because the colors are too light, duplicate this layer and merge it into the first layer (layer/merge down or ctrl – E) until you see the colors come up.  If you do not see any color you may need another picture.
    4. Duplicate this layer. Use edit /transform and rotate this layer 90 degrees.  Make the layer ¼ of the width of the page.
    5. Try a variety of blending modes to create different effects.

 

  1. Use the mask to blend images together.  Remember a mask is a technique where you hide (by using black) or reveal (by using white) different areas of the image WITHOUT erasing it.  You may use the gradient tool (in foreground to background setting) to create the effect or the paintbrush. To use the mask do the following:
    1. Click the mask icon on the bottom of layers palette to create the mask.

You will see a small thumbnail image on the layers palette.

    1. Remember to work on the mask icon.  You will know you are working on the mask because the paintbrush icon on the layers palette will change to the mask icon.
    2. Make the foreground and background colors black and white by pressing D on the keyboard.
    3. Paint with black to make the image disappear, paint with white to make the image appear.
    4. You may change the opacity of the paintbrush to change how much of the image you reveal or mask.
    5. Try the gradient tool.

 

  1. Change image modes to create interesting effects.  You can “sandwich” layers by duplicating the layer and using a different effect or blending mode on the top layer.
  2. Change the opacity of the layer to create transparency.
  3. Copy a layer two or more times and try different filters on each, change the blending mode or opacity of the top one.
  4. Use Image/ adjust color balance, hue and saturation, brightness and contrast on different layers to see effects.