How to do this background ?

[CapturePro]

Hi Guys,

I was wondering if someone might be able to point me in the right direction to how this background is done in Photoshop? I'm assuming it's done with coloured grads on low opacity?

Thanks you fab people!

[klev]

Re: How to do this background ?

It doesn't have to be one tool or another. For the left one start with a base color solid fill. The easiest way is probably to use a set of adjustment layers. Use the circular marquee to make selections of decreasing size. Each of them should be feathered and assigned as an alpha channel to some layer. Curves should work. You make the necessary brightness and color adjustments on each. Add a minor amount of noise to ensure that it doesn't look too fabricated. The last part can be done with added textures, but getting scale right without too much degradation is unlikely. The second one you use two rectangles. You might be able to do that one with a set of gradients. Just look at where the light is coming from and choose your starting and ending colors wisely. Do not expect it to be just one. Gradients will not follow a quadratic attenuation or mimic some of the properties of a real material. In both cases add drop shadows and other details as necessary.

[CapturePro]

Re: How to do this background ?

Thank You Klev for your advice, I'll have a crack at this technique.

[Tony W]

Re: How to do this background ?

New layer Gradient tool set to Radial gradient select the pastel shades you require. Click and drag gradient from your desired starting to end points. Set layer blend mode to probably either Overlay or Soft light. You will need to mask the main object as required

[Repairman]

Re: How to do this background ?

Work in 16 bit if you can to minimise banding in the grads