Introduction

In this tutorial, we’ll be creating a photo-manipulated wallpaper using free images and brushes from around the web—download the assets for this tutorial.

I’ve already collected the photos for this project, but I wanted to touch on this for your future projects; great photo-manipulation requires great photos—don’t be afraid to spend a few hours (or dollars) to find great imagery.

With all that said, let’s take a look at our final wallpaper:

<final wallpaper>

Part 1: Extracting The Ground

We’ll be coming back to detail this area, but this is a great place to start for our project. In part 1, we create our “Ground” layer by removing the sky from our photo.

Step 1

1. Open ‘background.jpg’ from the project assets folder, and double-click on the locked “Background” layer.
2. In the “New Layer” popup, name this layer “Ground” and hit OK.
3. In the main menu, goto “Layer > New > New Layer” (Ctrl + Shift + N) and enter “Base” as the name—hit OK.
4. Using the paint bucket tool, fill the “Base” layer with white.
5. Drag this layer underneath the “Ground” layer.

Step 2

The first thing we’ll need to do is remove the sky; there are a number of selection tools, but I prefer the pen tool for greater control.

1. Draw a curve just under the horizon—when you reach the trees, cut straight through (see above.)
2. When you reach the end, loop under the entire image, and click the first anchor to complete the curve.
3. Open your Paths window, right-click “Work Path” and select “Make Selection.”
4. In the “Make Selection” popup, enter “0.2″ pixels for the feather radius, and hit OK.
5. From the main menu, goto “Select > Inverse” (Ctrl + Shift + I) and hit DELETE.

Step 3

Now that we’ve removed the sky, our next step is to clean up the terrain—however, this step I felt benefited from visual demonstration.

The Video:

Part I: Extracting The Ground – Step 3 (video) from Julian Lloyd on Vimeo.

Part 2: Extracting The Castle

Now that we have an attractive “Ground” layer as a foundation, our next step is to add in our castle. This process will be very similar what we just did for the ground.

Step 1*

1. If you haven’t already, save our currently open document—we’ll be coming back to it shortly.
2. Open ‘disney_concert_hall.jpg’ from the project assets folder, and double-click on the locked “Background” layer.
3. In the “New Layer” popup, name this layer “Castle” and hit OK.
4. In the main menu, goto “Layer > New > New Layer” (Ctrl + Shift + N) and enter “Base” as the name—hit OK.
5. Using the paint bucket tool, fill the “Base” layer with white.
6. Drag this layer underneath the “Castle” layer.

*I know this can seem unnecessary, but I’ve found naming your layers (particularly as you work,) is a good habit to build.

Download the final wallpaper

• 2560 x 1600
• 1920 x 1200
• 1600 x 1200
• 1440 x 1024
• 1280 x 1024
• 1024 x 768