This tutorial was written June 11, 2003 using Paint Shop Pro 7. It is assumed that you have been working with PSP 7 or another version of PSP and have some familiarity with the program. This tutorial is similar to the one I wrote for PSP8.

With the new release of Paint Shop Pro 8 you may want to consider the upgrade to version 8. There are many changes and enhancements in PSP 8. If you do not already own Paint Shop Pro 8, you may purchase it or download a trial version of PSP 8 HERE.

OK, let's get started....

Open an image of your choice. This background will work best on an image which has something in the middle versus a focal point that goes to the edges of your image. If you want to use my photo, just right click on it and paste it onto your work space in PSP7.

Click on Shft+D two times to duplicate your image twice. Close the original and minimize one of the duplicates.

On one of the images we're going to make a tube out of the focal image. There is more than one way to do this, but for this one I'm using the Freehand Selection tool (the one that is lasso shaped) with the settings shown:

Use the Smart Edge and go all around the edges of your image by draging the tool over a short area of the edge and then left click. Continue until you have gone all around your image and then right click to complete your selection. The first image below shows the Smart Edge tool and the approximate length I would use on a non-straight edge. The second image shows the flower with the main selection completed.

When you have completed your selection, go to your Layer Palette and right click on Background (the only layer you should have) then Convert to Raster Layer. Next, go to Selections>Modify>Contract and contract the edge by 1 or 2 pixels, depending on how close you were able to get to the edge.

Finally, to make there are no sharp edges on your image, go to Selections> Modify>Feather and select 1 pixel as the Number of Pixels.

Now you can tube your image. Go to Edit>Copy then Edit>Paste as New Image. Then go to File>Export as Picture Tube. By tubing your image you will be able to use it full size for the graphic we're creating here, as well as in smaller sizes in the future. For now, minimize the graphic that still has marching ants and make the other graphic active.

We need to blur the background so first, go to Effects>Blur>Gaussian Blur and use a Radius of about 9. You can check to see how that will look on your image by clicking on the eye next to the die. If you make a change to the Radius, just click on the eye again and your image will be updated.

Next we'll add some noise. Go to Effects>Noise>Add... and use the settings shown. We're using these settings to achieve an overall effect: Noise at 50%, as well as Uniform, which results in noise covering your entire image:

For the remainder of the blur effect we're going to use Motion Blur. You'll be adding the Motion Blur four or five times starting with the dial set at 0. Go to Effects>Blur>Motion Blur as shown in the settings below. Click on 'OK' to apply the first motion blur. Repeat this process 4 to 5 more times changing the dial settings in a clockwise manner. You don't need to be precise about any of this, but it will produce a nice blurred effect for the background, also shown below in a reduced sized image

Now we add the Antique Mosaic Texture. Go to Effects>Texture>Antique Mosaic and use the settings below:

If you still have that image with the marching ants, make that image active. Go to Edit>Copy, then Edit>Paste as New Layer. You can move the image if you think it would look better repostioned. Use your Mover Tool to move it around. If you no longer have your copy with the marching ants available, you can also add the image to your background by using your new tube. Again, place it on a new layer. Once you have your image over the background, add a Drop Shadow, again previewing how it will look on your image by clicking on the 'eye'. I've used the settings below on mine. I often use 0 for both the vertical and horizontal as it's just enough to set the image off, but not too much to distract from it.

Now all that's left is to add a frame, after you have gone to Layers>Merge All Flatten. Because there is so much on both the right and left sides of this graphic I've decided to crop some off the sides and just a little off the top and the bottom. Get your Crop tool and sort of eyeball where you'd like to crop your image.:

On this type of image I generally just use the image itself to provide the frame. To do this go to Selections>Select All; Selections> Modify>Contract and set the number of pixels to the size you want for your frame. Because my image is still large I used 18 pixels. Next, go to Selections>Invert and then to Effects>3D Effects>Inner Bevel and use the following settings:

To set my frame off a bit I also used a drop shadow with the opacity set to 100 and the blur to 15 and kept the vertical and horizontal at 0. If you use an image with a lighter background you'll need to change your settings according to what looks best with the image.

That's it! Here's my final image, optimized at 25%. I have not resized it as it would have lost a lot of detail. The optimization results in an image that is less than 50K.

In addition to the image used throughout this tutorial I've also done one using a hydrangea photo I took a few years ago. I've included it here as an example of this effect with a photo containing a lighter background:

I hope you've enjoyed learning something about creating a background from your photo for your photo. If you have any questions, please email me.