Okay, here is my first Photoshop tutorial. This is an effect that is quite easy to produce, but the results are stunning. It turns out resembling some sort of golden curtain that can be applied to desktop wallpapers, website backgrounds, or anything else you can come up with. Enjoy!

Step 1

We’ll start out with a new document (File > New…). I started with an 800×600 canvas at 72 dpi and RGB color mode for this tutorial, but you can use your own settings for your purposes.

Step 2

First double-click on the Background Layer in the Layers palette and click Okay in the dialog that comes up.

Step 3

Now press D to reset the foreground and background colors. Press Alt + Delete to fill Layer 0 with black. Create a new layer. Press X to make the foreground color white. Then press Alt + Delete to fill the new layer with white. Go to Filters > Render > Fibers. In the dialog that comes up, set the Variance to 15 and the Strength to 35. Click Okay.

Step 4

Go to Filters > Blur > Motion Blur and set the Angle to 90 and the Distance to 999. Click Okay.

Step 5

Now click on the Create new fill or adjustment layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette (small circle half-filled with black) and select Hue/Saturation. In the dialog that comes up, check the box next to Colorize. Set the Hue to 40, the Saturation to 15, and leave the Lightness at 0. Click Okay.

Step 6

Click on the Create new fill or adjustment layer icon again and select Brightness/Contrast. Crank the brightness and the contrast all the way up and click Okay.

You should end up with something like this:

Step 7

Select Layer 1 and click on the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette (Rectangle with circle in the middle). Select the gradient tool (G) and create a gradient from white to black. Drag the gradient from the top of the image to just below half. You should get a nice fade to black.

Step 8

That’s it! Just add some text or other design elements to spice up the design a little bit, like I did below. I also used the Burn tool to give the bottom edge of the “curtain” a nice brushed texture. Now that you know how to do it, go crazy!

Download the PSD

curtain.psd