In this Adobe® Photoshop Tutorial, You will learn the techniques for making Random colored shadows. This is mostly suitable for intermediate users. On the web, most things that aren't photographs, are two-dimensional, monotone areas, devoid of lighting.
The key to making websites that really stand out has to do with two factors - lighting and randomness.
This tutorial goes through the steps of making a very funky piece of wallpaper. The main focus of this tutorial is on the random lighting aspect, based on Adobe Photoshop's "Clouds" tool. This can also be implemented in higher versions of Photoshop 7 or CS2/CS3.
Make a new image, 6000 pixels wide and 4500 pixels high. With the default black and white selected, click Filter --> Render --> Clouds. Clouds are an excellent way to create randomness.
Turn the clouds into colored patches, by clicking Image --> Adjust --> Brightness/Contrast. Set the Contrast to +100. You can also alter the size of the patches by changing the Brightness. Zoom out (Press Ctrl -) and select about a quarter of the image (you can do it precisely if you like).
Click Image --> Crop. Click Filter --> Distort --> Wave. Increase the wavelength to Minimum 200, Maximum 300, and increase the maximum amplitude to 50. Randomize the waves until you've got a nice effect, and click OK.
Create a new layer. You can do this from Layer Palette. Choose the gradient tool. Click on the colored representation of the gradient. Choose Noise Gradient. Apply the gradient across the image.
Desaturate the layer, by pressing Ctrl+Shift+U. The colors of a Noise Gradient aren't useful here, but it's a good source of randomized lighting when desaturated. Change it from "Normal" to a Hard Light layer (Adobe Photoshop 6.0) or a Linear Light layer (Adobe Photoshop 7.0.)
This noise gradient layer creates a visible, unidirectional lighting, with a myriad of different intensities . The problem with this lighting layer is that it doesn't show up over the black areas.
To make the light visible everywhere, select the cloudy background layer and click Image --> Adjustments --> Brightness/Contrast. Reduce the contrast to -75%. If you do this tutorial again, instead of changing the contrast, just increase the layer's lightness by about 40.
Go to your background layer and alter its Hue/Saturation, by pressing Ctrl+U. Tick "Colorize". Play with the Lightness and Saturation, and select a Hue (color).
Popularity: 13% [?]
Links you may find interesting -