Wallpaper from Photos (Exclusive Tutorial)

It's a good idea to create your own wallpaper using your favorite snapshots. Your beloved person's photos will please your eyes every time you start your work on a computer. If you just enlarge the photos, it will impair their quality. If you leave them as they are - there will be blanks between the edges. Yet there's a way out! I'll describe how to adorn your photos and make the wallpaper on their basis.

We need a couple of photos to start with.

Create a new document of any size you like (I've chosen 1280x1024px size as it fits my monitor resolution best) and fill it with dark gray (#bfbfbf for example).

Create a new group. Select Rectangle tool and set the following parameters:

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Draw a white rectangle in the middle of the canvas. Its size should be larger than your photo's size. In this particular case it is 476x686px.

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Apply Free Transform to it, then Warp. Move all side sliders closer to the middle, so that the picture looks concave.

Do not press Enter and press Free Transform once more, and rotate about 5 degrees right.

The basis for the photo is ready. Now we need to prepare the area for the photo itself. Duplicate Layer and Free Transform again. Set the percentage of 94% to horizontal and vertical diminution.

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Now drag the first photo on your canvas. Turn it 5 degrees to the right and drag over the prepared frame.

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Apply Clipping Mask and the photo will take its place (superfluous parts will be hidden).

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Apply Gradient Overlay to the frame:

The gradient itself should be a transition from clear white on each side to solid black in the middle.

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Now we need the shadow for the frame. Ctrl+Click on the layer with the frame, Feather 6px, transform selection. Next turn it 5 degrees clockwise, shift it a little downward and to the right. Fill it with #505050 color. Shift the layer backward.

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The first photo is ready. Move the group to the right side of the document. Then Duplicate group. Drag the second photo on the canvas. Turn it 5 degrees clockwise and replace it with the first one.

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Turn Set 13 degrees anticlockwise and move it to the right.

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Now let's set about the background. I've found a good grunge background on Deviantart.com. Drag it over the photo and move it back.

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Make the photo semi-transparent and it'll look more harmonically along with the background. Choose the group and set opacity 95% to both of them.

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And at last we need something to fix the photo to the background. I've chosen the following pin to fix the photos:

Drag it over your canvas. Desaturate and Free Transform. Set 42x65px.

Duplicate the layer with the pin, and drag it over the second image. Merge two layers. Create a new layer. Ctrl+click on the merged layer, transform selection as it's shown on the picture. Press Enter.

Feather selection 2px and fill it widh dark grey #505050.

That's it! I hope you like it.

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