Alibony Lessons for Photoshop Elements, Lightroom, and Digital Photography

Photoshop Elements: Satin Gradient Background

Adobe^® Photoshop^® Elements 6

April 16, 2008

Make a smooth satiny gradient background for your photos using three filters and the Gradient tool.

Satin Gradient Background

To create a satin background:

1. Create a new file of the desired size and fill the background with white.

2. Paint some gray shaded swirls on the the white background:

   1. Select a light gray as your foreground color.
   2. Select the Brush tool and paint a few broad swirls on the white background.
   3. Repeat with darker shades of gray. In the following examples, two shades of gray were used to draw the swirls. Example:
   

3. Apply the Wave filter:

   1. From the Filter menu, select Distort, then Wave. The Wave window is displayed:

      
   2. In the Wave window, adjust the settings until you get an interesting wave effect. Tip: Select Repeat Edge Pixels fof the Undefined Areas, and make the Minimum and Maximum settings for Wavelength and Amplitude of equal size.

   3. Click OK. Example:

      

4. Apply the Bas Relief filter:

   1. Make sure that your foreground color is gray and your background color is white.

   2. From the Filter menu, select Sketch, then Bas Relief. The Bas Relief window is displayed:

      
   3. In the Bas Relief window, adjust the settings. Set Detail= 3, Smoothness = 15 (maximum smoothness) and Light = Top.
   4. Click OK.

5. Apply a small Gaussian Blur:

   1. From the Filter menu, select Blur, then Gaussian Blur.
   2. In the Gaussian Blur window, enter a radius of 3-5 pixels.

   3. Click OK. Example:

      

6. Add a gradient:

   1. In the Layers palette, click the New Layer icon to create a new layer above the current layer. Add the gradient in this new layer.
   2. Select a foreground and background color for your gradient. In this example, we used a blue foreground and green background.
   3. Select the Gradient tool and in the options bar, select the Foreground to Background gradient.
   4. Click-and-drag diagonally from the top left corner to draw the gradient.

7. In the Layers palette, set the blending mode of the gradient layer to Color.

   

8. To deepen the color, duplicate the gradient layer and set the second gradient layer to a blending mode of Multiply.

   

Tips

When you have completed your background, your Layers palette should look like the following:

Instead of using the Gradient tool to add color to the background, try adding a Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer above the background layer. Check Colorize and play with the sliders until you get a color you like. Example:

Updated on August 4, 2011