Zoom Blur for a Versatile Background Effect

This is a quick and simple technique that you can use to create a background that's extremely flexible. By making changes to a couple of adjustment layers, you've got a variety of patterns, from techno to psychedelic.

Start by filling your background with a color. I'm using a rather non-descript blue (RGB 24/63/121). Next, place some white dots in a square pattern, larger dots on the outside, smaller dots toward the middle. I used the command View> Show> Grid and View> Snap To> Grid to ensure uniformity in placement.

Apply the filter Blur> Radial Blur, set to Zoom. Rather than using a huge adjustment, I set the slider to 50 and applied the filter three times. Remember that you can repeat the most recently used filter with the last-used settings through the keyboard shortcut Command-F (Mac) or Control-F (Windows). If you want to use the same filter with different settings, add the Option/Alt key.

A levels adjustment layer enables us to control the vibrancy of the image. (TIP: You can duplicate an adjustment layer by dragging it to the New layer button in the Layers Palette. Show/hide different Levels adjustments to change the look in a click or two, without losing your other variations.)

And, as you can see in the following images, a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer gives us a great variety of variations.

The Unsharp Mask filter, with some rather radical settings, creates another interesting look. (TIP: Duplicate the background layer and apply the filter to the copy. Unlike adjustment layers, filters are not "live.")

For the next variation, I applied Blur> Radial Blur set to Spin at 50 before applying the Unsharp Mask.

Command-F/Control-F to reapply Unsharp Mask produced this:

Repeating the Unsharp Mask a number of times led to this:

Experiment with different filters in different combinations and I'm sure you'll find some great pieces. And remember that you can layer different versions and change blending modes to enhance the effects.