Creating Wall Art in Photoshop

Decorating your home can be a little pricey but you can save yourself some money on the wall art by creating your own. There are several options available today to make edgy wall art. You can have your photo printed onto canvas and block-mounted or have it printed and framed. All you really need is an interesting photo and some time to play around in Photoshop.

The Photo

Depending on how big you are planning to make the wall art, you are going to need to watch the resolution of your photo. In general for printing, you need at least 300 DPI resolutions. You need to set your camera to take the highest quality photos that it can. The reason for this is that a camera records images as a series of dots, or pixels. The amount of space between each pixel varies according to the amount of detail the camera is told to capture. If you choose a low resolution, you will use less space on your memory card but also get a picture that has a lot more space between the pixels. When the photo is enlarged, these spaces become more obvious so it is best to use a high-resolution. Choose a picture that is clear and not blurry.

The Dimensions

Now you need to decide how big you want to go and what shape photo you want. A single 8.5″ x 11″ size print hung up on a large wall will look lost where an 14″ x 17″ or 16″ x 20″ print would do a lot better. Find out from your preferred provider whether or not you can enlarge your chosen photo.

The Effect

Your wall art can be made to tie in with whatever effect you are going for. Decide on the ultimate look you want to go for. This can be as simple as black and white print or a more complex watercolor kind of effect. Both these effects are relatively easy to achieve through Photoshop. There are numerous options available on Photoshop but I’ll just walk you through a simple one so that you have a basic idea.

Converting Color to Black and White

Black and white photos never go out of style and make a great statement piece. Here you need to ensure that the original photo is crisp and sharp and, preferably, highly contrasted. A photo will fairly even tones looks pretty flat in black and white.

1) Open the organizer and select your photo.

2) Click on “Fix”.

3) At the bottom of the screen, you will see a tag saying, “Full edit”. Select this.

4) On the next screen, you will see a tab saying, “Enhance” in the top toolbar. Click on it.

5) Then select “Convert to Black and White”.

6) In the pop up box that comes up, you will be given several options with regards to the final finish. You will also be able to change the Red/ Green/ Blue balance under “Adjustment Intensity”. These won’t be visible in the design view but it does affect the result.

7) Once you are happy, save the photo and have it printed out.