How do I create my own wallpaper using Photoshop?

Question

I want to take pictures of my favorite album covers and put them side by side and make my own wallpaper for my desktop. How do I do this with Photoshop?

Answer 1

First it helps if you know how to use Photoshop.
To put it simply
-- In Photoshop set up a page that is set to the same size as your screen resolution, 800X600 or larger.
-- Then you paint in the colors that you want on your background for your pictures.
-- Open the picture files for your album covers (assuming you took pictures of them with a digital camera and uploaded them onto your computer).
-- Copy each picture and paste it on top of your background image. Keep doing that until all the pictures are where you want them.
-- Save the file as either a JPEG (.jpg) or Bitmap (.bmp) image in a directory where you can find it. The best place to put it is in the Windows Directory and save it your Wallpaper file.
-- Go to the desktop and right click, on the drop down menu then select the properties menu.
-- Go to the Background tab and select the browse button then find your image and click open.

If you don’t know how to use Photoshop then you need to learn how to use the select tool, the hand tool, and the cut and paste buttons. You use a rectangular select tool to select your album covers then copy them. Select the wallpaper blank image and paste the cover into to it. Use the resizing tool to change the size and the hand tool to move it around. Once you deselect the selection tool then the picture is put in place. I suggest that you read the help files on these topics to get a better idea of how to use them.

What you want to do is a fairly simple task, that a skilled person can do in a matter of minutes.

Webshot is a program that switches thet wallpaper from a image directory. However, it uses a lot of system resources and the IT professional that I know removes it from any computer he finds it on.

Answer 2

Make a new document (File > New...) in photoshop. Pretty big, but not too big. I would go with maybe 500x500 pixels.

Copy paste your images into the document (right click on them in internet explorer, or where-ever, and select copy. The Ctrl+V or Edit > Paste in photoshop). Make sure the layers window is open (under Windows menu), notice each paste makes new layer. You'll probbaly want to resize and move around each image seperately. You resize a layer with Ctrl+T or Edit > Free Transform. Arrange them in a collage or tile or whatever.

Now, these are different album covers, they are going to have lotsa of colours...which will be distracting and make text hard to read. I strongly recommend toning them down. The easiest way to do with is with a blending layer ontop:

First, in the Layers window, select top layer (probably the last image you pasted in). Goto: Layer > New > Layer... click OK. Change your foreground colour by clicking on it (a colour box in fron of aother box in your Toolbar). Select a new colour from the palette window. Choose either black or white, or maybe a grey-blue. Whatever fits as a base colour for the scheme on your webpage. Now take the bucket pour tool from the Toolbar window. Poor it into your image, so that the image space filles with that colour.

Now, right click on the layer in the Layer window, and select Blending Options... On the top of the main Default Blending options, there is a dropdown that says Blendmode:, and under it somewhere a bar that says opacity. Change the opacity to maybe 50%, see how it looks. Mess around with the Blend mode and opacity until you get something the looks good. (If you choose a color, not just black or white, try the Hue or Color Blending modes)


Finally, you need to export it. First, save it in Photoshop format somewhere as abackup. Then goto File > Save For Web...

This is the window where you format it for the web. The goal is to makeit as small a file as possible, without comprimising the quality too much. I recommend a GIF with 256 colors, and 100% dither. If GIF cuts up the colours toomuch, use a lower quality JPEG. Do NOT use PNG or BMP for a website bg. Then just save it, and upload it to your page.


That's it. I didn't really intend to do a whole tutorial thing. Hope it's hopeful.

Answer 3

Ignore the ding-dongs below. Create new file BUT - make sure the size matches your current resolution (if you are not sure what size this is, open up "display setting" and have a look on the "settings" tab.

Build up your image and save in .jpg format. Note that using the "save for web" option will produce a smaller file size which will in turn use less system resources to display.

Oh, and note that if you save the finished file to you "my pictures" folder, you can then simply right-click on the file and "set as desktop background".

Answer 4

Scan the pictures and do the changes by photoshop
install webshot in your computer.
get it from this link...
http://www.soft32.com/Download/Free/Webshots_Desktop_2006/4-126420-1.html
add photos

enjoy

Answer 5

do it with win xp m-s paint op-en ur photo right hit on it hit on edit . it will go in to ms-paint. a ms paint will open with ur phot in ot da bottom on da right ur see a blue dot move ur mouse over that move it down . ur make more room for other photo . so you can join them up . when you have that done hit on edit >paste from . then hit on ur next photo hit on import & open it will go over ur frist phot just move it to da side join them up you can join up as many as you like . then when that is done. hit on >file save as. << save it as a jpg 24bit
then open da photo you just save & you can upload it to yahoo 360 or ur yahoo photo