What we're talking about here, is doing digital image manipulation, usually with photo-quality images captured from television broadcasts or DVD's, or scanned from print media.

Traditionally, the finished wallpaper is presented in a 1024 x 768 size, but plenty of people don't have a monitor resolution that high, so don't feel bad if you make yours small.  Just keep it in that ratio:  1200 x 900; 800 x 600; 640 x 480.

Of course, that's only a guideline, if you've got a nice scan that's an odd size, do what you like, but do try to get it to a manageable (displayable) size, and a reasonable file size.

Compression

By reasonable file size, I mean that wallpapers posted to the two newsgroups I frequent - alt.binaries.multimedia.xena-herc and alt.binaries.pictures.tv.scifi-fantasy - traditionally are posted in Jpeg format, and compressed to a file size no greater than 200kb (roughly).  Of course, that isn't a limit that's set in stone, but if your file size gets up past 500k, god forbid into the MB range, most people won't download it, and will complain.  So, if you want the most people to see it, try to stay under about 200k at the absolute maximum.

I believe most graphics software packages give you an option to adjust the amount of compression it will use, and some (if not all) give you a preview screen.  Your best bet, until you are used to the results a particular setting will give you, is what I gathered from scanning many tutorials:  Use the preview screens, and crank it until it "looks like shit", then back off a little bit, until you get the combination of look you're happy with and reasonably small file size.

A fairly major thing to keep in mind when making a collage, and one that most novices don't think about (I know I didn't, at first), is to AVOID HARD EDGES.  Feathering is good.  Here's what I mean:

To see the difference in a couple of my walls, this one (an old one) has hard edges, see how they stand out?  -   Loss Of Innocence I
And these do not.  This one by covering the bottoms of the shots with other pics    -    Gods, Heroes, and Monsters
And this one by using soft fades    -   Break Stuff

I am definitely not a master of using the collaged faces - that distinction goes to (you're gonna see this name a lot.....) Mike Quick.  His site is at http://www.mikes-images.com, and particularly good example is Love for Eternity.

But Cheri, you say, HOW do I get these cutouts, with or without soft edges?  Well, now, there's a variety of ways.  Since I use Paint Shop Pro, I'll use its jargon:

Firstly, be very sure that you've saved the picture with a new filename, so you don't lose your original. 1 - You could use your eraser.  Using different degrees of zoom, and different brush sizes, you can get as detailed an edge as you want (like for hair).  For a softer, less jagged looking edge, you use a brush with a very low "hardness" setting.  If, when you're done, the edges still look too jaggy for your taste, you can always go over them with your "soften" tool:  in paint shop it's a choice you can select under your "retouch" tool.   Click on this icon, then on your tool options window, click the second tab.  You will find a pull-down menu with lots of nifty options like soften, smudge, push, lightness up, etc. 2 - (My preferred method) use the "Lasso" tool.  In Paint Shop, you can set this to "Smart Edge", and then click around whatever you want to cut out.  In the tool options window, you can set a certain degree of feathering, measured in pixels, that will occur automatically when the cutout

is finalized.  Be careful, though, because if you set it too high, the edges WITHIN where you want to cut out are made partially transparent, and if you're working rather closely, you could get more transparency than you want.  See my "The Furies" wall, and look at the Fury with her thumbs down near the bottom.  See how you can barely see her one hand?  That's what I mean.  So, if you want a nice wide feathered edge on something like that, set the feather on the tool for, say, 3; then, when you have the "marching ants" (the moving dashed line around whatever you've selected), you can modify your selection.  Go to the Selections menu, Modify, and then make a selection from the pop-out list. 3 - You could use a layer mask.  If you're going to use a mask, it's a good idea to have the picture containing the stuff you want to cut out as a layer in another window.  If not, and you try to copy it into another picture, you'll end up just copying the mask - and getting a black and white outline instead of what it's supposed to be displaying.  To learn about layer masks, go to the Masking techniques page - especially check out the tutorial.

Here's a discussion of various ways to remove a person or thing from their background, oriented towards Photoshop.

Subject  Re: Beauty by Moonlight
Date:  Mon, 10 Jun 2002 17:34:44 -0400
 From:   Ian Wolf <iwolf2@earthlink.net>
Newsgroups:  alt.binaries.multimedia.xena-herc

In article <LH7M8.163483$Oa1.15439177@bin8.nnrp.aus1.giganews.com>,  "Michael Quick" <mike@mquick.freeserve.co.uk> wrote: > Have you tried alternative ways of cutting out figures?  Photoshop has many ways of doing this.   Try investigating : 1. Use a Quick Mask - you simply paint your selection!   If after painting the selection you apply a Gaussian Blur you should be able to get a smooth edge (or use a soft edged brush) 2. Use the Extract Command - you use a 'highlighter' to paint around the edge of a figure/object, fill the interior, then the command will extract the object and delete the surrounding background. 3. Use the Background Eraser - just select a tolerance and click your way around the perimeter of the figure and it'll remove the background for you. 4. Use Layer Masks - my favourite!  Add a Layer Mask to the layer with the figure then paint onto the Mask with BLACK, the background vanishes!   Zoom in and use a small brush to eliminate small detailed areas.  Use a soft edged brush to give a smooth edge.   If you make a mistake switch to WHITE and paint the missing bit back, so simple (just like me <g>)    ALL my cut-outs are done  this way.  Layer Masks are the #1 tool for wallpaper making in my opinion.

And btw <g> that's a gorgeous border & text.  Nice composition as well.   Thersides <me@me.com> wrote in message news:kbWL8.51$CZ6.5478@twister.rdc-kc.rr.com... Hello Everybody,  P.S.  A quick Photoshop question; after I use the magnetic lasso tool; how do I go into the selection and smooth out the outline to avoid the somewhat jagged edges I see in the Gabrielle picture?  Thanks.   Layer Masks is how I do it 90% of the time myself! Everthing Mike said is right on the money!! It's advise right from the Wallpaper 101 course material! ;) Ian

For more basic intro stuff, I quote Mike Quick, veteran graphics dood on the two above-mentioned newsgroups:
 

Subject: Re: Need help with wallpapers
Date: Sat, 19 May 2001 01:07:10 +0100
From: "Michael Quick" <mike@mquick.freeserve.co.uk>
Newsgroups: alt.binaries.multimedia.xena-herc
----------------------------------

Right, a few comments :) In the spirit of constructive criticism... 1. Avoid flat tops!   As at the top of the right side image.   Several ways to get around this.    One way is to butt the flat edge up against the edge of the wallpaper, thus hiding the edge. Another is to add a layer mask and gently fade away the hard edge.   What software did you use and does it have masks? 2. Try to pick pictures that have similar contrast, quality and colour.   The odd ones out here are the right side (too dark), small middle left (lower quality, darker) and lower left (too bright).   You can help solve this by playing with the images before putting them in the wallpaper. The easiest is the right side one, add a little brightness to it.  Next the lower left, reduce the contrast and drop the brightness slightly.   The middle left should be dropped from the wallpaper, it's too different to fit in :( 3.  The cut out of the main pic (Gabby from Crusader, a favourite pic of mine) should have the edges softened a bit, run around the dark edges with a soften/blur tool set at a low strength (although yet again a layer mask would work best)

4.  A general comment is that most walls look best if there is a common theme to the choice of images. Try to pick images that go together naturally.  Using my two walls posted tonight as an example, the Callisto wall has 'sweet' (!) Callisto pics on the left and fierce pics on the right.  The Xena wall is all fighting poses. 5. If you really must use a picture that's poor in quality, try applying an artistic filter to it (or a texture), this can hide a lot of faults. And to finish off, practice using masks, the single most useful tool (even if Artemis doesn't use them!), used by most of us here to get good blends and fades. Let us know what software you're using, it makes a big difference to the advice we can offer. -- Mike (and the best advice of all is to keep practicing!)

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