How do you make good wallpapers?

Well, first hi@all. Seems nice here, and it seems as if there were quite a lot designer.

And I'm a Swiss, so there ... may be mistakes in my English; I'd like you to correct me.

I tried to make a wallpaper, and somehow none of them got really good. I've got a few good photos, so I took them as subject, and here are my first essays - most of them aren't usable: [edit: resolution, images and size changed]

http://livingshadow.uttx.net/uploads/wallp...wasserfall1.jpg

http://livingshadow.uttx.net/uploads/wallp...wasserfall2.jpg

http://livingshadow.uttx.net/uploads/wallp...wasserfall3.jpg

http://livingshadow.uttx.net/uploads/wallp...wasserfall4.jpg

http://livingshadow.uttx.net/uploads/wallp...wasserfall5.jpg (new)

http://livingshadow.uttx.net/uploads/wallp...wasserfall6.jpg

Now, how can I make them looking well? I'd like a wallpaper that has everywhere about the same colour, but I still wanna see the waterfall. Maybe a little like that:

http://art.gnome.org/backgrounds/gnome/1186

looking forward to good answers

Granjow

#365368

Don't feel constrained to use simple brightness/contrast settings. Learn to use Hue/Saturation, Levels, and Curves, as they can be quite valuable allies. Curves would be especially useful for this--start by playing around .

Oh, and I suggest getting a better server. If your images take forever to load people won't want to look at them. You could try uploading previews at imageshack.us.

-NC

#365435

wallpaper making ois realy no diffrent from good art making. Focus on figure, form, whitespace, color theory, tone, contrast and everything else.

#365441

The image you linked to has subtle scan lines (very easy to do in PShop) which disguise the resolution issues a bit. Also don't use saturation/hue - you will destroy the image, instead use the photo effects in PS - such as duotone/sepia.

oh and NC *cough* digital studio *cough*

#365458

All i can say is, lots and lots AND lots of practice with a fair ammount of inspiration and just a touch of originality

#365469

Yay for Tricky .

-NC

#365506

Tnx. @lostspyder, do you just know some resources for whitespace, colour theory and so? I'm interested in that, but we don't learn much about it in school.

I now changed the images in my first post to 640x480 and really jpg, before they were about 3 MB or so