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Making your own wallpaper

ViciousShadow21

ViciousShadow21

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Mar 11, 2009
2,489
0
To your left or right
hey folks, i would like to create my own desktop wallpapers using some cool photos that i have acquired over the years mostly of cars. i go on a website like desktopmachine.com and am amazed how they make all those different resolutions. when i try and stretch out an image to fit a certain resolution it gets all blurry. so my question is how do they do that?!?! and are there any really good tutorials out there for newbs like me to learn. i have looked around youtube and the like and havent found anything at all useful. thanks for the help MR

Vicious.
 
No real magic here. All the different resolutions are really just different pixel dimensions of two crops of the same image. The ratio stays the same. Notice how the image in the front has more space to the left of the car. One is "widescreen" ratio and the other is whatever it is you call standard like on my laptop. Crop the image to widescreen in PhotoShop and save is with all the different dimensions in the left column on the site you posted and you have a widescreen wallpaper that will fit a lot of different size widescreen monitors. Repeat this for the other dimensions and you have wallpaper for monitors of a different size ratio. I'm sure someone has written a PhotoShop Action that will do this with the click of a button.

Sorry if I wrote too much. First I should just ask if you have PhotoShop or other image editing software...
 

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Designer Dale said:
No real magic here. All the different resolutions are really just different pixel dimensions of two crops of the same image. The ratio stays the same. Notice how the image in the front has more space to the left of the car. One is "widescreen" ratio and the other is whatever it is you call standard like on my laptop. Crop the image to widescreen in PhotoShop and save is with all the different dimensions in the left column on the site you posted and you have a widescreen wallpaper that will fit a lot of different size widescreen monitors. Repeat this for the other dimensions and you have wallpaper for monitors of a different size ratio. I'm sure someone has written a PhotoShop Action that will do this with the click of a button.

Sorry if I wrote too much. First I should just ask if you have PhotoShop or other image editing software...
Click to expand...

oh ok so i get that trick now. and i guess they just start with a really big image and scale it down. ha here i was thinking that i could somehow add pixels that didnt exist. wow i feel dumb.

i have the CS4 suite. i have heard some people use fireworks as well as photoshop. do you know of any good videos on how to make your own wallpapers or is it mostly just fooling around cause i am all for doing that. thanks for your help Dale.

Vicious
 
RE: wallpapers

i have the CS4 suite. i have heard some people use fireworks as well as photoshop. do you know of any good videos on how to make your own wallpapers...

******************

Since you have CS4. Launch CS4. Click on File>New. Now, click on Preset>Custom. Now, scroll down to HDTV, 1920x1080 (with guides) and start your wallpaper project. To add photos...Go to File>Open (choose photos) then drag and drop or copy and paste into your new project. To resize added photos go to Edit>Free Transform (Command T) Note: Don't forget to save along the way.

I hope this helps
 
Chasb said:
i have the CS4 suite. i have heard some people use fireworks as well as photoshop. do you know of any good videos on how to make your own wallpapers...

******************

Since you have CS4. Launch CS4. Click on File>New. Now, click on Preset>Custom. Now, scroll down to HDTV, 1920x1080 (with guides) and start your wallpaper project. To add photos...Go to File>Open (choose photos) then drag and drop or copy and paste into your new project. To resize added photos go to Edit>Free Transform (Command T) Note: Don't forget to save along the way.

I hope this helps
Click to expand...

thanks for the tips do you know of any cool effects that i could use to jazz it up and make it look good? i also know that there are downloadable add-ons that adobe offers, any suggestions on those as well? i mean i dont want to just put a bunch of random pics together you know hahaha. thanks a lot for your help.

Vicious
 
Well, you are basically asking how to use photoshop. There are plenty of tutorials online - just google.
 
As said above, anything in photoshop could be used to enhance your image if you know which effect to use where and how. You have actions, filters, brushes - all of which extras can be downloaded from the Internet if you want more. It really just depends what you want / need to do.

Oh and 1920x1080 is just one, I would suggest starting at a 30" screen res just to cover all bases (will add these dimensions when I can confirm them).
 
ViciousShadow21 said:
thanks for the tips do you know of any cool effects that i could use to jazz it up and make it look good? i also know that there are downloadable add-ons that adobe offers, any suggestions on those as well? i mean i dont want to just put a bunch of random pics together you know hahaha. thanks a lot for your help.

Vicious
Click to expand...

I would suggest experimenting with Image>Adjustments> Photo Filter or Shadow/Highlight. Next, try Filter>Render>Lens Flare or Lighting Effects. BUILD layers - Layers (F7 on keyboard) and experiment with Layer blending options (Normal/Lighten/Soft Light/Luminosity, etc) and experiment with Opacity/Fill too. Also try (top of screen) Layer> Layer Style> Drop Shadows, etc, If you are not up to it and you want to fast-forward...you can download free "Actions" from this website: http://www.deviantart.com/#order=9&q=Actions Actions will speed up the process, but that is another set of how-to's and it takes away from the experience part of learning. Most importantly, be patient and have fun and keep a notebook next to you and write down what works and what doesn't work. God bless and take care.
 
Chasb said:
I would suggest experimenting with Image>Adjustments> Photo Filter or Shadow/Highlight. Next, try Filter>Render>Lens Flare or Lighting Effects. BUILD layers - Layers (F7 on keyboard) and experiment with Layer blending options (Normal/Lighten/Soft Light/Luminosity, etc) and experiment with Opacity/Fill too. Also try (top of screen) Layer> Layer Style> Drop Shadows, etc, If you are not up to it and you want to fast-forward...you can download free "Actions" from this website: http://www.deviantart.com/#order=9&q=Actions Actions will speed up the process, but that is another set of how-to's and it takes away from the experience part of learning. Most importantly, be patient and have fun and keep a notebook next to you and write down what works and what doesn't work. God bless and take care.
Click to expand...

wow thanks for the advice. exactly what i was looking for. i like to experiment with PS. it is pretty much how i have learned it up to this point. and the Deviantart site is fantastic. i dl a lot of my icons from there and the section you recommend looks great. do you have any other recommendations on good effect add-ons from the Adobe site? thanks for the help.
 
ViciousShadow21 said:
wow thanks for the advice. exactly what i was looking for. i like to experiment with PS. it is pretty much how i have learned it up to this point. and the Deviantart site is fantastic. i dl a lot of my icons from there and the section you recommend looks great. do you have any other recommendations on good effect add-ons from the Adobe site? thanks for the help.
Click to expand...

Actually, I wouldn't be too concerned about effect add-ons. You have plenty to work with. Now, IF you have the $$$s burning a hole in your pocket, I would suggest
Alien Skin Add-ons. http://www.alienskin.com/ Honestly, practice with what you have first.

Here's a link for some GREAT tutorials - this alone will keep you busy for a loooong time!
http://www.good-tutorials.com/search/tutorials/all/Photoshop?approved

For learning and laughing with Photoshop watch these tutorials. Warning: Not for kids or the easily offended... Donnie Hoyle has "issues."
http://www.mydamnchannel.com/You_Suck_at_Photoshop/Season_1/1DistortWarpandLayerEffects_1373.aspx If you scroll down, there are 26 more tutorials and stories below episode 1.

There, that's all I got. Have fun! Take care and God bless.
 
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